


Somewhere Over the Rainbow

by orphan_account



Category: RWBY
Genre: Abusive Relationship, Age Difference, Asexuality, Bisexuality, Bloodplay, Corridor Slaughter, Death, Dysphoria, Explosions, F/F, F/M, Feels, Fisting, Fluff, Intrigue, Lesbian Relationships, Lesbians, Lots of death this time, M/M, Male-Male Relationships, Masochism, Mild Plot, Multi, Murder, Nudity, Pet Play, Polyamorous Relationships, Polyamory, Polyships, Positive Relationships, SO MUCH QUEER, Salem being Darth Vader, Seventeen Women In Love, Sexual Fluidity, Sister Complex, Sister-Sister Relationship, Slice of Life, Slight Incest, Smut, Strong Language, Tags to be updated throughout, Transgender, Triggers, Violence, gender fluidity, homophobic father, intense smut, relationships, so much gay, suicide warning, teenage angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-27
Updated: 2017-02-28
Packaged: 2018-06-04 19:56:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 27
Words: 213,558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6673507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It had only been a few months since Ruby had confessed to her attraction to her entire team, even her sister, but in that time her life had changed so much she could hardly believe it. A small relationship with her team had transformed into a life of love and affection with sixteen other women, and they were ready for their first vacation together, as girlfriends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I'll Say A Little Prayer For You

**Author's Note:**

> Co-Written by @yelllowspottedblackbull on Tumblr. Any questions can be asked here or there to them or myself @valkurion-universe. Enjoy!

Foreword by Headmaster Ozpin of Beacon Academy.

“It is not often I get to contribute to something as beautiful as true love itself. Yes, unorthodox in many ways and forms. Yes, perhaps looked down upon in many ways. Yes, incestual. But it is love. Something I, myself have never felt in this particular manner, but I do know love. And I suppose you could say I love my school. My students. My hot chocolate. By Oum do I love my hot chocolate. And yes, I do miss you, Glynda, being around me at all times when I need it, but it is for such a better cause than getting me out of my tangled bedsheets in the morning. It is love, pure and true.” 

“Oh, and Glynda, when you do get this message, please come get me out of my bed sheets. I need to pee. Thank you. Kisses!”

From my desk to yours,  
Headmaster Ozpin of Beacon Academy

As always, Glynda was the first one awake and out of bed, before the sun even peaked over the trees of evergreen in the stunning distance from the townhouse. Glynda always adored the view, both outside, and in. 

Being the second in command of an entire academy was a busy job, and the blond professional was used to waking up at four or five in the morning just to see what exactly the students, or, yes, Ozpin had gotten up to during the night, not to mention what state the school was even in before the morning rush and progressing day unfolded. It was apt to state that Glynda had transitioned to the townhouse with exactly the same attitude, watching over everyone else as it was what she did best. And she loved overseeing the mass of bodies in varying levels of clothing that were her girlfriends.

The blond elder waltzed over to the nearest window and leaned her forehead against the frosted glass, enjoying the chill that spread across her face. Staring out into the city of Vale, she remarked how quiet and still everything was, peacefully serene, just as it was in the townhouse with the snoozing women and the excess of limbs tangled together in comfortable sleep.

Snow had fallen overnight, blanketing the city in a good six inches, at least.Somehow, Glynda thought, it just makes the city look all the more appealing. It all just gave her a taste of both elation and fear. More accurately, it only reminded her that tomorrow was the day she and her sixteen girlfriends were going to leave on an airship to visit sunny Mistral for a week, then Atlas for five more days before returning home and preparing for the spring semester. 

Their first real vacation together as lovers.

Oh my Dust I actually have sixteen girlfriends, how did this happen? She thought, raising her hand to her mouth at the thought. I hadn’t been that long, less than a month and a half since she and her girlfriends had welcomed the last girls, Penny Polendina, Ciel Soleil, and Neon Katt, into the loving folds of their relationship, but still Glynda could hardly believe this was how she lived her life now. 

In an illustrious townhouse with sixteen other women in one large and loving relationship. It was the definition of heaven. Across town, in a small apartment, Jaune Arc sneezed in a splatter of light blood in his sleep from the same thought.

Before the bright eyed professor could start spiraling into worry for what might, what could, and what probably would go wrong on the impending vacation around Remnant, she heard soft footfalls behind her, and before she could turn around, two chilled hands wrapped around her lower abdomen tenderly, with an all too familiar and experienced caress. Glynda felt a kiss below her left ear and reeled from the freshness pressed upon her.

“What are you doing up so early?” Glynda heard whispered in her ear. She knew the voice very, very well, as it was not only the voice of a fellow teacher, an albeit new and inexperienced one, but someone Glynda had gotten to know quite well in an emotional, physical, and just plain knowledgeable capacity since they had gotten into an intimate relationship.

The same chilly hands brought back fond memories of the girls’ nights and Glynda’s caring days around Beacon. 

Professor Goodwitch slowly turned around and stared at the gorgeous face of Winter Schnee in the predawn light. Her eyes were not an ice blue, as so many would falsely assume. To Glynda, they were a warm blue.As loving as they had been to her the previous night. Deep, and warm. 

Just like she was last night.

Glynda felt a blush rise to her face as carnal thoughts rose to the top. What she had seen Winter doing, how she had aided and played out the night with her, and how the rest of the girls had played along in the all too blissful careen of pleasure. It all made Glynda even warmer inside as it played over and over again in her mind. Winter’s smile was even more beautiful in the predawn light, giving her aura and air a celestial glow that suited her pale beauty.

“Same reason you are. I’m used to waking up this early. But maybe over time, I can get used to the… ‘luxury’ shall we say, dear” Glynda confessed while making air quotes, moving closer to her fair girlfriend.

They shared a small, soft kiss in the brief moment before they heard another pair of muted footsteps behind them as Ciel Soleil came up, her head vacant of her usually blue cap and her hair still flawless despite her positions the previous night. She was meticulous, coldly in fact, giving them both a light squeeze on the soft, plump flesh at their rears, followed by kissing them both roughly on the mouth before scooping up her private notebook from the window sill and heading to one of the many bathrooms, leaving Winter and Glynda in stunned silence. Not a word from the short and tanned beauty, just her aggressive and rather abrupt display of sparked affection

“She’s your teaching assistant, isn’t she?” Glynda inquired, looking back to the door where Ciel had left, the thought of her adorable and completely alluring body covered only by one of the many oversized t shirts, the traditional pajama wear of the house, in her mind.

“Yes, yes she is.” The white haired Schnee confirmed.

“You lucky bitch.” Glynda joked.

Glynda and Winter shared a snarky smile, then turned back to the window, waiting for their younger partners and lovers to wake up, which would be soon, but not so soon they couldn’t enjoy a cup of coffee in private. What was stopping them at the moment, however, was the various noises coming from the bathroom that Ciel had just stepped in. Wet, animal sounds, paired with what sounded like heavy breathing. 

Both older women stared at each other for a second, the same look in their lime and oceanic eyes. The fire that passed between them in the gaze was a message of assistance and lust.

A quick and pleasurable six minutes later, Ciel, Winter, and Glynda were downstairs, although one looked visibly more relieved and relaxed than the other two.

As Glynda fixed two cups of coffee and a pot of black tea, Winter sat next to Ciel at the brunch bar of the expertly designed kitchen area, and stroked her neck-length yet beautiful hair as the shorter analyst tried to calm her breathing, even now after her little antics in the bathroom with her girlfriends had passed. Ciel needed a shower even more now. Her notebook was open and she was writing down a series of digits 

Both Winter and Glynda knew of her notebook, as did all her partners, but only Ciel, and Pyrrha Nikos, but no else, knew what was recorded inside, and what the numbers meant. As the coffee and tea were poured, Ciel managed to open to a random page half filled with numbers, write ‘4:36’, and close the notebook with the pen inside it without ever looking up from the counter. 

Ciel was completely meticulous in everything she did, every aspect of her life, including her girlfriends and her life with them. But as she came back up from her scribbles and mess of numbers, she planted another quick but grateful peck on Winter’s cheek, by means of a ‘thank you dear’. 

After the Goodwitch handed Winter her cup of coffee, the white haired beauty and Glynda slowly and quietly scaled the spiral staircase back up to the third floor where the other fourteen girls slept in their illustrious and fabulous, empress size bed; a Schnee Dust Company exclusive. Invented by heiress Weiss Schnee, the Empress Size Bed was designed to be the size of four whole king size mattresses pushed together, and is large enough to bed an entire family, or set of seventeen girlfriends, comfortably. The price of such a bed was pushed to be beyond any asking price. But of course the girlfriends simply needed a bed of such grandiose size to fit them all for their cuddles and caresses in the night. They all refused to willingly sleep apart.

They were all snoozing blissfully, waiting for the alarm to go off in their slumber for the final day of the semester before two weeks with their girlfriends. There were pros and cons to living in such a place of course. Yes, they had space, privacy, and a safe haven where one could get hot for teacher and have her heat up in return, but there were cons too. Mainly, two big cons; seventeen girls, five bathrooms, and an unthinkable amount of hair care products of all varying sizes and brands. Two, because they had to live off campus, they had to catch the second airship into Vale every morning to be on time for classes. And, while it was plausible for Glynda to call in one of her plethora of favors from Ozpin in order to get classes canceled so she could spend the day with the people she loved, the diligent and studious professor refused to let her student’s lessons suffer due to her libido.

Glynda and Winter stood there for a minute, just overlooking the mass of beautifully sleeping women, before Glynda felt her scroll go off, which was odd for this early in the morning. Looking at it, she groaned, and gave Winter a peck on the cheek.

“I need to go in early. I’ll see you at Beacon” she gently told her snow white girlfriend before leaving, pointing to two of the shorter girlfriends in the bed. “Please don’t let Ruby or Penny get too stressed about Oobleck’s exam today. Oh, and don’t let Yang not get stressed about it.” Glynda asked before she removed her arm from around Winter’s waist, went into one of the many bathrooms, and exited only minutes later, looking ready for a cold day. As she passed by Winter to go down the stairs, the elder Schnee could only hear one phrase come out of the Goodwitch’s mouth.

“1,294, Ozpin.”

It wasn’t ten minutes before Yang Xiao Long rose out of bed, blond hair glowing in the early morning sun coming through the blinds of the window, making her look near angelic. Having to shake little and adorable Ruby from her chest, the little sun dragon woke up Velvet, Neon, and Pyrrha. After rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, Yang then saw Winter standing there, holding a cup of coffee and looking completely stunning with her white hair, almost glowing in the low light from the window, waving for them to come downstairs to talk.

“I don’t think going for a run would be a good idea today, Yang.”, Winter advised as she poured Yang a cup of coffee while pouring Velvet and Pyrrha a cup of tea. Her voice was apologetic and glittered with safe concern for her girlfriends and the weather outside. 

Yang cocked an eyebrow, growing a certain confident look about her pleasant face. “Winter. Baby. Honey Bun. I know where you’re coming from, I do!” Yang reassured her taller girlfriend with her usually perky attitude. “But if you want me to maintain this bod that you keep drooling for, you gotta let me do what I do” the blond responded as she gratefully took her coffee. Black, as always. She liked the taste of the roast unadulterated. 

Velvet was already giggling slightly, holding Neon’s hand delightfully under the counter and resting her head on Pyrrha’s sturdy shoulder. Neon purred slightly and her tail took on a mind of its own, wiggling it’s way up to stroke the back of her fellow faunus, prompting Velvet to make a rather content squeak. Winter’s eyes melted at that, seeing how comfortable Neon had become with all her girlfriends to the point where she could make Velvet squeak. 

“I don’t know Yang, she may be right. I wasn’t expecting it to snow, and I don’t have shoes that will maintain traction in this weather” Pyrrha said, wrapping her hands around the warm mug, knowing that the highest floor was the warmest, but the lower ones could get cold in the winter weather as it was beginning to set in. In the forefront of her mind, the Invincible Girl kept thinking of their week in Mistral, her home region and how warm and pleasant it would be by the beach, with all of her girlfriends showing their bodies in attractive swimsuits and such. The thought of what they all might smell like at the end of the days when they would all retreat to the bedroom began to make a slight heat between her legs rise already, tantalising the sweet centers of her mind.

Pyrrha was always so sensitive, and so in touch with all of her girlfriends and exactly how they operated and of course, smelled. 

The feline faunus with the eccentric tail was less submissive upon the weather. “Oh, come on you guys! This could be so much fun! We could get back early and build a snowman! Or woman! Or a non-binary snow individual! Or we could build a snow me! Oh Luna, we should TOTALLY build a snow me! Imagine a snow Neon with a snow tail and snow hair! Eek!” Neon nearly yelled while bouncing up and down in her chair, all in one large and bubbly breath as she always did, being one of those demons from the wretched abyss known as “Morning People.”

Winter smiled again, as did Pyrrha and Yang, so happy and blessed that their newest girlfriend had fully released her bubbly self from her shell. If their polyamory had proven one thing, it was that all of them had changed only minorly, or for some even majorly, but all for the better in every way imaginable. Mostly, one girl in particular had saved her own life in joining and falling in love with her sixteen girlfriends. One girl with short and gorgeous mint hair. 

“I don’t know guys. I have Glynda for second period today, and that means sparring. I don’t want to have a nice big bruise for people to hit for an easy take down later today.” Velvet murmured as she downed the rest of her tea, nuzzling into Pyrrha, who had wrapped her strong arm around the faunus lovingly. 

Ever since she got involved with everyone, the bullying had stopped altogether. And while her ears were finally starting to fully recover, that didn’t mean her self esteem had though. Some things took time. Thankfully, everyone was willing to wait for Velvet and it made the little faunus feel all the more welcome and loved in all her lovers’ arms every night as they held onto each other in their haze of euphoric love

The blond had an idea.

“Look, how about this. We’ll go single file. I’ll go in front, and keep my aura active, melting the snow in front of me, making a path for you guys to follow!” She suggested enthusiastically, lilac eyes popping with glee. “I can use it as both cardio and aura training! Please! You know that if I don’t do my morning jog I feel restless for the rest of the day” Yang pleaded, washing out her mug in the sink, her back to the girlfriends that usually joined her for her morning run. 

Winter stood, and slowly drank her coffee in amusement. This kind of causal encounter was still unusual for her. She was either used to strict, militaristic discipline, or the actual military. Papa Schnee never was a hugger. But still she adored it so.

Both Pyrrha and Velvet were about to refuse outright before they made the mistake of glancing at Neon.

See, in the townhouse the “Puppy Dog Pout” reigns supreme. The stronger the pout, the more power one holds. The fifth most powerful puppy dog pout belongs to Neo, who can change the color of her eyes to suit her target. The fourth most powerful puppy dog pout belongs to Velvet Scarlatina herself, whose ears drooping can make even the most hardened killer feel bad for bumping into her. The third most powerful belongs to Neon Katt, who developed a special technique where her tail actually curls around, and she grabs it. Devastating, absolutely devastating. The second belongs to Penny Polendina, whose innocent demeanor alludes to that of an actual puppy, confused and hurt, drawing tears from the most demented of sociopaths and psychopaths. And the most powerful puppy dog pout in the house, of course, belongs to Ruby Rose: instigator of the entire relationship.

Neither Velvet nor Pyrrha were prepared for the third strongest pout in the house and caved almost instantly, 0:00.78 Ciel recorded in her notebook from her place on the stairs.

“See you later, Winter! Make sure people are getting up by the time we get back!” Yang shouted as she left the house with the jogging crew, in full parka gear and ready for a slow burn. Winter chuckled to herself in happiness before she felt someone bump into her from behind with a familiar, cute little yawn.

“And good morning to you, little rose” Winter blissfully sighed as she could tell by the yawn, pitch and dimensions of the little huntress at her back that she had just collided with a newly awaken and adorable Ruby Rose. 

“Mnpphgnnhm.” Ruby mumbled into the larger girl’s back.

Winter paused in confusion, before turning around and bending down to face Ruby face to face, oceanic eyes misty and full of tender love for her shorter girlfriend. The little silver eyes so beautiful.

“What did you say, dear?”

Ruby opened her eyes and kissed Winter on the lips. Not lightly. Not roughly. The perfect amount of pressure to say ‘I love you, and am glad you’re here, but if I was more awake and didn’t have morning breath, I’d be using tongue.’

“I didn’t say anything, I just wanted you to turn around so I could give you a good morning kiss Winter. Good morning” Ruby said with a small shit-eating grin, licking the taste of coffee off of her lips. She always enjoyed baiting the taller Schnee into a kiss, just as she did with Weiss during classes. 

Winter had to smirk back. If one didn’t know Ruby, they would mistake her for being innocent, or even naive at times. However, as Winter had learned more and more about Ruby Rose, she realized that the innocent part of her personality hid a great, plotting masterpiece. Why else would Ozpin choose her to lead her own team?

‘Yes, okay, there is no way she does not have a sister complex. So if I stick her with her sister in a room for 4 years, there is no way something will not develop.’ Ozpin thought, sipping a cup of hot chocolate with way too much hard liquor in it. He was drunk, so much so he could barely tell if the girls he was thinking about were even real or not. He had never been so violently drunk in his life.

‘I should probably make it so her older sister cannot refuse. To hell with it! Red hood is team leader. You know what? The Schnee and the White Fang girl shall be on that team too. That should be fun.’ He slurred in his mind while drunkenly hitting keys on his computer, managing to finally correctly type in RWBY after about ten or so tries. 

The man must truly be a strategic genius. Winter thought.

Winter stood up straight as she saw another pair of hands encircle Ruby’s waist. Those hand belonged to a polite and adorable redhead with light green eyes while the girl rested her head on Ruby’s shoulder, stealing a kiss from the corner of the leader’s mouth and giggling with a perky glee at the faint taste strawberries on her faux lips. 

“And good morning to you, Penny.”

“Morning, Winter. Salutations. Sleep well?” The female android responded in a sleepy voice, closing her eyes to smile her usually bright and lovely grin. Penny always looked adorable, no matter where she was or what she was doing. She was truly pure and doted upon by all her girlfriends. 

The girls originally questioned how Penny could be sleepy, as she was a synthetic. Penny had then explained how she had installed several software modifications and algorithms in order to feel more human, in every way imaginable to her. She always wanted to be more real, and the girls were certainly making her feel that, so she had to do her own part and discover how best to upgrade and maximise herself to be that real girl who deserved to be loved. This was one of the many settings, including drunk, hungover, menstruating even, overtired, stressed, anxious, and hyperactive, Penny had to display accurate human behaviour. And it made Ruby positively swoon for her little android. 

“Ever since I’ve been sleeping in the same bed as all of you, I’ve been getting the best sleep of my life. But what about you, my little automaton? Did you sleep well?” Winter asked, running her fingers through little Penny’s ginger hair lavishly.

Penny released Ruby and took the time to stretch. Servos in her spine could be heard straining before the telltale sounds of the shower started, signifying the day officially starting on the floor above them.

“Before I came here, to this house, I never dreamt. Never. I would enter sleep mode and reawaken 8 hours later. But now, surrounded by all these different auras. I think... I think I’m learning how to dream” She said with half lidded eyes, and a happy, if not slightly drunk or euphoric smile on her face. Penny was so cute to Ruby’s silver eyes. 

“I think I can safely say, I love dreaming, because you’re all always there with me.”

Ruby and Winter hugged her tightly, with tears in their eyes at the beautiful happening. Penny was a real girl, no matter what she, or Ironwood, or anyone else ever said. Everyone knew this. But, ever since she came to live with them, to love with them, everyone could tell Penny was starting to believe this too. She was editing herself to better show that she was becoming the real girl everyone knew and loved, and Penny was loving it herself, all the feelings and emotions and maintenance. It was so organic and so real. She never wanted to stop living it. And no one said she ever had to stop.

Before the scene could get any more heartfelt, before little Ruby could grow any more in love with her android girlfriend, and before Winter could actually cry in her happiness, a tapping sound could be heard, and behind Penny a fully dressed Ciel Soleil could be seen drumming her index finger on her watch.

She was keeping to her schedule as always.

“Winter,” Ciel began, instructive and fastly paced to make sure there was time left just in case. She was nothing but fastidious in every second of planning. 

“All three of you need to get ready for today’s classes. The Malachites are sharing one bathroom. Blake and Neo are sharing a second. Coco took a third for herself, and I convinced Emerald and Nora to share another. I suggest you and Ruby share the last, as Penny does not require constant cleaning, and Weiss has already showered with me. The jogging group will shower while breakfast is being prepared if Pyrrha can keep her ‘urges’ in check” she fluttered out, all the while tapping her foot and index finger while checking her watch. They were beginning to run a little into her insurance time. 

Winter smiled at the lover in front of her before walking past Ciel, giving her a light tap on the ass, with a bit of vengeance for earlier in the morning. 

Ciel’s eyes popped in sweet and heated surprise. She loved it

Winter then looked down and realized she was, in fact, still in her sleeping clothes, An oversized t-shirt that mentioned something about a swath of cops killed and the words ‘I am Trashman’ followed by a random pair of underwear picked up off of the ground from the previous night. From the make and designer label, the silk fabric and the way they felt against the firm flesh of her rear, Winter assumed they belonged to either Coco or her own little sister. Either possibility made her take the corner of her bottom lip in between her canines in the mischievous and pleasant memories of the night. To Winter it barely mattered at all whose underwear were covering her, all of the girls had seen what was lying underneath many, many times, yet they still loved her and she felt the same way in return. 

“Little Rose,” Winter called as she climbed the stairs slowly, again tantalised by the memories of the night and the new ones she could make on their vacation. “Are you coming to join big sister Winter in the shower? I promise to keep the water warm...”

In a flash of rose petals, Ruby was up the stairs, her bra and tank top left on the countertop, landing a lighting quick smack on Ciel’s ass as she sped up to catch Winter. Ciel made a note in her book again with a slight, lighthearted smile before moving to pick up the stray clothes. 

She noticed Penny staring at her.

In a flash, Ciel realized she would’ve never have had the opportunity or inclination that she could ever be this happy or loved if she had never have been involved with Penny. 

The little analyst wrapped her arms around the real girl’s shoulders, and planted a kiss of warm and loving gratitude on Penny’s sweet lips. She was thankful that Penny never had to deal with morning breath. “Thank you, Penny” Ciel whispered to her android. 

“Whatever for, Ciel my dear?” The ginger asked, surprised and innocently curious at the same time. She was however positively giddy at how happy and affectionate her partner was all of a sudden. Her adoration for the tanned girl knew no boundaries.

“For bringing me into this. I’ve never felt this much love before in my entire life. I love you Penny.”

Penny smiled, and hugged her lover back tightly, planting her own sweet exchange on Ciel’s soft lips.

“I love you too darling.”

 

Omake: A Daylight Robbery Morning.

 

Jaune yawned and blinked his eyes as the sun crept over the horizon, a little later and close to the starting hours of classes at school, but still with enough time for the blond to get himself, and his boyfriend ready for their last day before the holiday.

At first he tried to sit up, to rub his eyes, but he felt both of his arms pinned down. Jaune knew who it was, without looking, without even thinking or struggling to remember, not that he even struggled. He could tell who was where based on their tones and feel. His left side felt exceptionally warm, so that must have meant Cinder, her aura activating subconsciously during the night, and his right leg felt like it was pressed up against metal all night, so that meant Mercury. 

As Jaune slowly slid out from between Cinder and Mercury, he walked out into the living room to see Roman already up, not a rarity but uncommon enough to be surprising. Roman typed furiously away at his laptop, and as Jaune quietly walked behind him, he could tell the dapper and extremely attractive gentleman was doing a budget report for ‘Dust In The Wind’, the dust shop he ran with Cinder, selling all the dust they had stolen ever since the Keikaku didn’t seem to appeal so much anymore. 

“Jauney-Boy, you’re gonna give me a heart attack one of these days, you know that, right?” Roman said as he spun the cheap office chair around, a tired smile on his face. He then stood, cracked his back, and enveloped Jaune in a warm and sensual hug, mostly to give himself an excuse to stand after being hunched over for the last hour or so.

“What do you think you’re doing with my man?” Cinder said in a tired, but humor filled voice, as she nearly stumbled out of the small bedroom. Her hair was still messed and her tartan shirt was only loosely done up by three buttons, still showing the front clasp of her black lace bra and fantastic body. Her legs were exceptionally on show, earning a raised eyebrow from both the ginger and the blonde.

Jaune took a second to think before responding “Me or him?”

“What do you mean, your man?” Mercury responded, following Cinder out of the bedroom before collapsing into Roman’s armchair, which happened to double as Roman’s bed. 

“We could just get a bigger bed, Roman, you don’t need to sleep in that chair” Jaune had suggested to his elder boyfriend one time, caring as ever and just hoping his man was comfortable in the nights as Jaune himself slept with Cinder and Mercury.

“Jaune, baby. One, I like this chair. It likes me. Nothing has cradled my ass better since... Well, you, honestly. But two, we can’t get a bigger bed. It wouldn’t fucking fit! I’m not a fucking Schnee here, I’m not made of money” Roman had countered, endearingly and humourously.

“Alright, Merc, up!” Jaune pulled a groaning Mercury Black out of the armchair and pushed him towards the bathroom, waiting until he heard the shower run before getting out his and Mercury’s clothes for the day. 

Ever since he started dating Mercury and finding out how much Merc loved to crossdress, he took it upon himself to choose his boyfriend’s underwear for the day everyday. And no, not his other boyfriend Roman, or his girlfriend, Cinder. Funnily enough, Cinder and Roman were actually dating each other, but Mercury was dating Jaune and Jaune exclusively. At this thought, Jaune blushed that so many people liked, no, loved him. Even his family didn’t make him feel this way.

Alright, a nice pair of yellow boyshorts with pink hearts on it. That should do for Merc

He froze as Mercury stood there in a small towel, and not much else.

“Alright, lover boy, it’s your turn in the shower. We’ve got class” Merc called out, stepping into the bedrooms still dripping and sparking enough feeling of rushing blood between Jaune’s legs, the blond doubted if he’d even make it to the airship in time. The grey haired beauty walked pass Jaune, and dropped the towel, giving him a view of his bare ass and again the luscious feeling of rushing blood was simply tantalising to Jaune. 

He would give anything to stay at home with Mercury, laying with him in one of Mercury’s more lacy and complimenting pair of warm purple panties. 

“Make something good for dinner and this is yours tonight” Mercury teased, giving his hips a little sway. 

As Jaune walked in a daze out of the bedroom, and through the living room where Cinder was sitting in the crook of Roman’s arm, the two of them discussing a promotion they could do in order to generate some business. “How about come in with a Beacon ID, get 25% off your next dust purchase?” Cinder suggested enthusiastically, with her new found glee.

“Yeah, I can see that. Then we get some return customers that might even come back after graduation! Hunters always need dust!” Roman exclaimed. Jaune smiled at the sight of his girl and boyfriend in such a blissful delight, and walked into the bathroom and let the hot water run over him, before turning it ice cold in order to try to get his hormones under control before getting ready. It barely helped. All he could think about was Mercury all the while, his body, his beautiful mind and the way he crossdressed so nervously and adorably. He was still stiff, but forced his thoughts on something else.

Happiness turned cold in the pit of his stomach as anxiety clenched at his heart.

Tomorrow. He thought. It’s all or nothing.

He took a deep breath and looked to the ceiling.

Please, please let Cinder be okay. I, we all need her.


	2. Pop! Goes My Heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How did seventeen women all get into one large polyship? The story reveals just how the groud works were laid, on one hot afternoon in the dorm of Team Rwby, where Yang Xiao Long is trying on her summer wardrobe, fully showing off just how alluring and gorgeous her body is, while Ruby Rose admires and slowly drives herself insane on the bunk above, mulling over the fact that she's been in love and in lust with her elder sister for years. Only now Ruby is sixteen, and ready to take the risk...

Foreword by Headmaster Ozpin of Beacon Academy.

"I do not consider myself to be a sinister man. Yes, others have tried to bring up my constant scheming and plotting and secret projects involving god-defying technology, but that is all for a greater cause. A greater good, even. Sacrifices must be made for the sake of the world. Or, in this case, for the sake of getting Little Red here to finally get some from her big, gay, gay, totally into her, gay sacrifice, of course, being the air conditioning for the entirety of Beacon Academy, save for my office. Glynda is in here with me. I said that if she didn't tell anyone that the AC isn't actually broken, she would be allowed to stay in the frosty room with me. Worst comes to worse, I can always tell her I still have pictures from that Christmas party. Like I'd ever actually delete those."

From my desk to yours,

Headmaster Ozpin of Beacon Academy

Six Months Prior.

It was warm. No, scratch that, it was practically scalding hot outside, which was much hotter than Ruby was used to at Beacon.

To be honest, it didn't help that during the hottest week in Vale in over a decade also happened to be the week that the air conditioning suddenly seemed to be on the fritz for the entirety of Beacon Academy. Thankfully, the electric fan Tai had picked up for his daughter's team when they had started at school was blowing cool air into the dorm room with the window open, which was a small mercy, like hot chocolate when the heat was out.

It also didn't help Ruby's heat problem that her astoundingly attractive elder sister was trying on all manner of short and flattering clothing in an attempt to beat the heat, which only made the little red reaper's body temperature rise even more, like her own personal warm front moving in on all the wrong, yet so right, places.

In truth, Ruby was wondering if there had ever been a time when she hadn't found her older sister attractive.

She couldn't remember a time in her life where she hadn't at least loved and admired Yang, seeing the dream-like lilac swirls in her eyes, and knowing the fearsome and intimidating crimson said lilac could become. Then there was the golden and flowing ringlets of hair that was gave Yang her street name, "The Blonde Brawler of Beacon" and how it could glow with power and strength while she wore that cocky, sparkling smile at any and all challengers.

To little Ruby, even as a child, her big sister was the pinnacle of beauty, and as the shorter team leader hit puberty like an airship slamming into a giant Nevermore, her feelings of adoration and sisterly love had taken a more intense, arousing turn which had helped her arrive at where she was currently; knee deep in memories and unrepressed attraction.

Rubles stared at her sister as she tried on shorter and more revealing summer clothes, the self inflicted torture slowly twisting and kicking Ruby's libido into maximum overdrive as she scribbled in her diary while headphones blared music in her small ears.

The song that was currently being unloaded into her mind was the rather hilarious, slightly childish, and inappropriate 'Dragon Slayer', a song about a fearsome and powerful hunter telling a story to a potential mate about how he vanquished a legendary Grimm. It was catchy, yes, but it was the lyrics that tickled the huntress's mind, slightly risque but funny enough, not to mention she enjoyed the music style, which was popular two or three decades ago.

Well, she would be enjoying the music if Yang wasn't being so distracting over by the mirror.

Currently, as Ruby's face erupted out into a blush matching the red tips of her hair, Yang was stretching her arms into the air, past her mass of shining hair which was in an overly attractive, yet practical ponytail while her body was turned at such an angle and bent in such a way that made Ruby's heart begin to increase it's rate of beating enormously.

It was her hips, thighs, breasts, waistline.

Yang's curves, the tone of her entire body, the slight impression of her lower abdomen from all the time she spent at the gym. And, of course, her chest. The forbidden fruits. The twin suns of Ruby's worship. The dual orbs of warmth and dreams were two of the biggest Ruby had ever seen, not that she had even tried to glance at another girl's chest.

Except for Blake's and Weiss's. Oh, and everyone else's. Said an familiar voice in her mind.

Rubles would only all too happily admire the rather amorous bust of the deeply attractive faunus, as well as her adorable feline ears and her brilliant eyes that always sparkled, even in the dark.

And, of course, the leader adored her own partner, even if her chest was slightly flatter than the others', but it made her slightly more alluring. Ruby still found Weiss absolutely gorgeous as well. Her eyes, her snow white hair, and her small, petite frame that looked amazing to hold in the night, her icy aura turning warm from arousal. And the small scar down her left eye always made Ruby swoon for some reason she could not explain.

With Blake, the red team leader wanted to stroke her beautiful hair and ears to make the woman purr all day long. She had seen Yang make the faunus react in such a way and Ruby wanted to try it.

Oum, did she want to try it.

She wanted to try a lot of things after having reached sixteen at last, and not one of them was to stop staring at her own sister's chest while admiring how well she filled out her various tight clothes. It was as if young and developing Rubles was in trance, and she didn't want it to be broken.

I never stared at their chests! Rubles shouted in her mind, trying to shroud all the times where she had caught herself looking at all the wonderful breasts of Beacon.

Bullshit. Yes, you have. There's Blake, Weiss, Pyrrha, Nora, Coco, Velvet, Glynda, Shawcross Alive, girl. The list goes on. Just make a move already. You could probably store a piece of coal in your pants and take out diamond five minutes later.

The displeased voice in her head was soothing and completely devious. The frustrated, yet amused tone making her think again of all the sweet mounds she enjoyed to sneakily snap mental images of, making her peak around Yang's arched back to snag another view of her sister's own. Yang's were always so much more fun to look at than the others', not just because of size or volume, but because of how proud the blond was of them, which made Rubles all the more inclined to adore them from afar.

But I don't find any of them except Yang attractive. Ruby lied internally. Well, half lied.

Yes, you do. You've just been so goddamn preoccupied with your sister that you've never...

At first, she was confused at the voice's sudden trail off, before she realized where exactly her eyes were gazing.

Yang happened to be trying on her new golden bikini. Skimpy, thin, and just a size or two too small and one hundred percent the way Ruby liked it.

Oh, Dust. Why does she have to look so nice all the time? Both Ruby and her Voice said in unison, her walls and filters of repression of the awkward admiration for her attractive sister melting as Yang's aura filled the room and her body filled her younger sister's eyes.

The little sun dragon even let out a light moan of pleasure from admiring her own body, making Ruby's lower regions ignite.

Combined with the daisy dukes covering the plump flesh of the blonde's luscious looking rear and the slightly glazed tone of her pure skin, it all made Yang Xiao Long look and feel like possibly the most beautiful and prominent she ever had, even with the yellow and grey metallic arm and the light layer of sweat glistening on her slightly tanned skin. At least in Ruby's mind, she thought Yang imagined she was the only one who was looking and admiring her toned and stunning body.

Except Yang wasn't alone. There was her little sister, laying on her stomach on top her bed, looking down at the sun goddess posing in the mirror, and falling even more in love with her if that was even possible, and completely destroying any semblance of rational, clear thought in her head.

Ruby had always cared for and loved Yang, ultimately. But there was an event. Something that pushed Ruby from sisterly love, to complete devotion. It was years back. A little over a decade ago, even. Ruby had just turned sixteen at present, but this had happened when she was five. Yang was seven. And their mother, Summer Rose, had just died.

"No, Ruby, you're too young. I need to go myself" said a young Yang Xiao Long with a rather large lisp. She had been losing baby teeth left and right, so her mouth looked like someone had been playing a carnival game and had been doing well enough to earn a prize from the middle shelf.

"Yaaaang..." Whined an even younger Ruby Rose. She had come to rely on Yang's presence ever since their shared father had started to distance himself from his daughters.

Currently, he was upstairs, in his bedroom. Sleeping? Drinking? Weeping? All three, most likely. It was all he ever did except hunt since he lost his second wife. After Raven abandoned him, it was only Summer's warmth and touch that stopped him from losing himself to sadness and despair.

Now? He had nothing to stop him from diving headfirst into the abyss. Qrow did what he could for the girls and Tai, but he had his own life. His own hunts. And his own reasons to drink.

"Ruby, I'm going somewhere far, far from home. I know you can't walk that far!" Yang insisted.

While she was only two years older than her adorable rosebud of a sister, she had already begun to inherit the Xiao Long and Branwen genes and stamina. She could lift fifty pounds over her head without straining, not to mention her aura had already naturally unlocked nearly a year ago, saving her broken arms and legs from some serious tumbles and falls already.

"Den... take me in da wagon!" The little rose exclaimed, standing up on her tiptoes while stretching her arms into the air. She didn't want to leave Yang at all, she loved her too much and would go anywhere with her. Her memory of Summer had already began to fade. Yang was all she had left.

Yang thought for a second, her elementary school brain working at maximum capacity, threatening to overheat as the strain of thinking caused her hair to begin to glow.

If she took the wagon, she not only could take Ruby, but some supplies as well.

"Ok, Rubles. Get the wagon! We ride!" Yang said, posing with a finger to the sky, an excited and happy Ruby clapping behind her.

But how could it all go so wrong, so quickly?

Yes, the ride was long. Yes, Yang was nearly exhausted. But they had made it. The last known location of Raven Branwen, her mother. It was a small log cabin in the middle of a clearing in the forest a few hours from their house.

A clearing in the forest teeming with Beowolves.

With the last of her strength, for the first time ever, Yang Xiao Long activated her aura purposefully, giving her one last blast of strength while her eyes turned the same crimson as her mother's, the child's tired brain not calculating just how hopeless this situation was. Also too tired to think, her brain didn't factor that they would go for her sister first, who was wide awake and paralyzed by fear and despair in the wagon, leaking negative emotion like a cheap faucet.

Jumping in the way of the leading Beowulf, Yang's right arm tanked the first swipe, and left her without a scratch as her aura shattered.

At the second swipe, her arm wasn't so lucky.

Qrow found them seconds later, Ruby crying uncontrollably while cradling a bleeding and unconscious Yang Xiao Long, with one right arm laying a few meters away from the desperate girls. In protecting her little, sweet, baby sister, Yang had nearly sacrificed herself and had indeed sacrificed her dominant arm, as she would never have it attached again.

All for Ruby.

Qrow slayed every single Grimm within a hundred feet in about thirty seconds before scooping up his two nieces and speeding them to the hospital.

Ruby refused to leave Yang's side for two weeks.

Thankfully, however, this is what snapped Tai out of his darkness, returning him to the father figure his girls needed. Unfortunately, it meant Yang her sister would bear scars for the rest of their lives from the ordeal. Some on the surface, and some deep, deep below.

But every time Ruby looked at that right arm, sometimes combat ready and loading up to shoot some kinetic dust shells, other times looking nearly completely human, making hard to tell which of her two arms was mechanical, she was reminded about just how much Yang cared for her and was ready to give up for her at such a young age, and just how much Ruby fell in love for her since then.

Again, the small and raven haired girl fell back to reality once she saw her sweet and alluring sister stretching, arching her exposed back, and letting out a relaxed and pleased sigh of enjoyment.

The little huntress had written it all in her diary, the book in front of her as her scroll lit up to signal the song was ending. Then she looked to Yang again, who was reaching behind her head in front of the mirror and… Dust, no. Please, no. Not now. Not here. She's not...

Yang was, much to Ruby's dismay, shock, and enjoyment, pulling at the strings behind her neck and removing the bikini. Right in front of her.

Before Ruby could pull her eyes away from the mirror, the knot was pulled apart, and the top fell down.

Oh yes. But oh no.

Ruby shot from her perch on the top bunk to the bathroom of their shared dorm, a flurry of rose petals flying and falling as she raced from the bunk bed to escape the view of her sister undressing before she lost control of her changing and boiling hot body.

It felt so strange to be sixteen. Yes, she had already experienced much of puberty, but now it felt like her own libido was rebelling against her, reminding her of the fact she was still a virgin.

Virginity and Yang. There was such a thought as she entered the bathroom.

Control was constantly an issue. Everytime she saw the buxom blonde undressing, or Weiss with just a towel wrapped around her, or even Blake in just that short little dress robe she wore for bed, sometimes just underwear, it just had to drive the little rose a bit wilder, and made her slightly more confused, having the biggest of any crush on her sister, while also having more than just friendly feelings for the heiress, the faunus, and other girls.

That's when she needed to take moments for herself to relieve some heat and pressure, mull over her attractions as she did, but mostly to clear her mind and body and regain some false idea of control. Hence the hiding as her glorious sister was undressing once again.

The door nearly slammed as Ruby sealed herself into the bathroom, hot and bothered due to the heat of the dorm and the fire she felt in her body rising, especially in a certain warm and wet area which was becoming more apparent with every second as she recalled her sister haphazardly changing, ignorant of the raging storm of crimson not ten feet from her.

Did I spy pink?

Ruby's apparently normal knees nearly buckled at this thought, forcing her to sit on the porcelain throne to avoid any chance of painful falls before she could clear the haze in her mind, forcing her to think about all kinds of situations with Yang. Yang with minimal clothing. Ruby behind her, running her warm palms around her tight waist and around to her toned abdomen.

Oh Luna, her abs.

Again her knees suddenly felt certainly not so normal, nor did the space between her legs, which was beginning to feel the same as when she joined Blake in the gym, seeing Yang working out with Pyrrha and Nora, two more names that just made Ruby's heat problem even worse.

There was no more debating it, no other thoughts could replace the sudden urge she had to think of Yang, her dear sweet sister whom she loved more than she could ever love someone else, she thought, doing all sorts of unspeakable and joyous acts to her.

Ruby needed a few minutes alone.

In those few minutes, Yang had hardly restrained her casual sense of body freedom due to being alone in the dorm with the window almost open and the curtains drawn. She hardly cared at all if someone saw her, after all Yang Xiao Long was nothing if not proud of how large and voluptuous her breasts were and she enjoyed the luxury just being able to let them bounce freely and breathe, unobstructed by her uniform or casual wear, even the golden bikini she loved so and was looking forward to showing Blake when she got back with cold treats from the local general store, which was just a quick airship ride away.

The smug blond knew that the faunus had a little soft spot for her, but she was just too shy to advance, she thought. And Yang didn't mind. She would make the move herself one day probably, in her over teasing she would set Blake off, but for the now, Yang was hoping on another first.

Yang very much enjoyed just walking around topless in the dorm, especially on such a hot day where wearing anything might cause her bust discomfort. Teasing her sister into embarrassment to the point where she had to hide in the bathroom was a plus too, albeit inadvertent. And then, as she turned around and gently lifted her breasts to let the cool breeze from the fan dry the sweat of her underboob for rashes could be killer in the summer, she took notice of a little corner of dark notebook off the perch that her little rose had just sped off of.

I guess now is as good a time as any, Yang thought, remembering her little sister kept a diary.

Yang thought back, remembering when she was the tiniest sun dragon on the block, and kept a similar book to confide in, and would write the name of her current crush inside the back cover.

And she very much needed to know who her dear, sweet sister was falling for after hitting puberty.

Yang still remembered three years previous when her adorable little sister had came to her with a confession. More accurately, a coming out. Yang remembered being so relieved, so happy that no one was going to touch her adorable little lesbian sister.

No men. Yes, no men. And Ruby was her half sister. Not full blooded. Not that it mattered anyway, surely?

At least, it had never mattered to Yang.

Even less to her adorably gay sister.

While the beautiful blond climbed the ladder to the top bunk, careful not to brush her bosom against the wood of the bed, Yang riddled off the potential suitors from her mental list of girls that could possibly be good enough for Ruby.

There was Pyrrha Nikos. Strong, loyal, honorable. She could match Yang in a fight and was nearly as protective of her little rose as Yang was. Hell, Yang could swear that Pyrrha had a crush on Ruby with how badly the redhead wanted to spend time around her team. Without realizing it, anger began to boil in Yang's stomach. Anger and a little jealousy.

Then, there was Penny Polendina. Not around a lot, but definitely affectionate. Also, a robot. But, maybe, robots could please Ruby in ways her elder 'she' couldn't.

By "she", Yang meant Pyrrha. Not herself. Certainly.

The team leader certainly led on that she cared for the little android a lot, whenever they shared time together away from everyone else, Ruby usually returned all smiles.

Nevertheless, Pyrrha and Penny would be pretty good at protecting and loving Ruby. Not as good as Yang herself, but still good.

The blonde continued to think as she reached over and opened the small book to the section in the back cover where she wrote her crush as a child. She could only imagine Rubles would do the same.

What other girls are there around Beacon who could possibly be good enough for her?

The answer was on the page, what had finally been revealed to her lilac eyes. It was completely unbelievable considering who wrote it, but it was still written nonetheless. The words 'Beautiful, Close, Blonde' were written in deep red ink, the same colour as Ruby's cape which left a sudden blank in Yang's mind. Only one possible person that they both knew came even close to fitting that description.

"Jaune?!" Came from Yang's mouth audibly in shock and horror.

Ruby lied to me? To Me? Is she even a lesbian? Or is she bisexual? What the Dust?

At that moment, Ruby exited the bathroom, only to see her still half naked, still beautiful sister leaning over the ladder into her bed, with the small black and crimson book held in her hands. Ruby could tell she had flipped to the section that she most certainly did not want Yang to read.

"Yang?!" Ruby exclaimed once she saw the fiery blond hair and short denim shorts. However, the brawler's arms had been covering the bare chest accidentally, meaning Ruby didn't know that the beautiful blonde was still topless. Well, she figured it out once Yang jumped.

Did you see that bounce?! The inner voice yelled in an sport's announcer imitation.

"Ruby?!" Yang shouted in her slightly startled frenzy. She then lost her balance upon standing straight and curving her back to reveal she was still not wearing anything above her denim shorts. The sun dragon jerked backwards, and fell ultimately from the bed, landing on her soft rear, and even though the aura took the brunt of the hit, it still hurt.

The injured fire flower let out a small whine and squirmed as she sat, her rear hurting and basically inviting Ruby to come help alleviate the ache.

She was currently embracing Yang and even aiding by rubbing her rear to soothe the pain. Both lied to themselves by saying this was simply to remove Yang's pain, even though the aura had taken care of the small bruise in less than five seconds.

"Oh Yang you're so silly, what were you doing up there, you crazy goose?" The still little leader asked her darling sister with more than a little not very well hid panic in her voice and a manic smile on her face, ceasing the pleasant rubbing even if Yang wanted to cry out for more of it.

Upon retreating a little and leaning out from her sister, Ruby's message from her inner voice finally got through and Ruby herself realised that Yang was topless. This meant her breasts, her large, round, soft and completely mesmerizing breasts, were being presented to the raven haired sister so easily.

"Uh, and why, why were.. why are you…" Ruby trailed as her vision was taken by the two almost glowing orbs that were her sister's delightful and perky bust. She lightly flicked her tongue out of her mouth to lick her now dry lips.

Pink. The cool air must've made them pop out too. I wonder how they taste.

As Yang thought to scurry for something that would cover her chest, a curious blush overtaking her, Ruby suddenly became overwhelmed with an urge. An urge larger, and more powerful than the impulse she's had in the bathroom multiple times, and stronger than any she'd ever had in the sixteen years of growing up around the alluring woman. It was an urge to do something irreversible and completely terrifying, something she'd wanted to do since she was a girl and something that had only enticed Ruby's thoughts and desires and burned into her dreams even more upon hitting puberty, when every fibre of her little and developing body burned with a fiery passion.

Ruby looked to her sister's lips, shining from the slight saliva, looking plump and soft as they always did in Ruby's imagination. She tensed up a little, swallowed her doubt and nerves, and leaned in.

She kissed Yang purposefully on her lemon tasting lips, Ruby's strawberry lip balm mixing with it, and she felt the world exploded completely with a sweet ecstasy. Sour and sweet. Strawberry Lemonade.

"Weiss?"

"Yes, Yang?"

"You have an older sister, right?"

"Yes, and her name is Winter. I don't think you've met, but I have told you all about her. Marginally."

"Do... Do you mind if I ask some questions about how she used to act when the two of you were together?"

It was a cool, spring day in late April. May was fast approaching and while Blake had taken Pyrrha and Ruby into Vale in order to see if they could get some project supplies for a sculpture assignment from Professor Port, Yang and Weiss had already completed it by finding 2 different boulders and smashing them into statues of Port defeating an Alpha Beowulf with a spoon and accordion with kinetic dust blasts and powerful gravity glyphs respectively.

Weiss looked confused for a moment. Yang had her head in Weiss's lap as Weiss read a book above her. This was something that both Yang and Ruby and Weiss and Winter had done growing up and, honestly, it felt normal to both of them. But, figuring she may as well indulge the beautiful, golden haired, sparkling lilac eyed-

Weiss made a slight choking sound, before letting out a few small coughs as she caught her train of thought and forcefully threw it from the tracks.

Figuring she may as well indulge the brutally honest brawler of Beacon Academy, known as Yang Xiao Long, so that she may return to her book; she dog eared a page, placed it down on the grass, and motioned for Yang to rise from her reclined position.

"I suppose I can allow such an event to happen, but! Only if I can ask one question first."

Yang nodded quickly, staring at Weiss in her admittedly beautiful and wintry eyes.

"What brought on such an inquisition?" Weiss inquired, genuinely curious considering her buxom teammate had never showed an interest in Winter.

"Well, Patch is a small town. I never had any sisters in my class, and Ruby never had any in hers" Yang divulged, shuffling to make herself comfortable. "I never really got an outside look at how sisters are supposed to act before. You're my first opportunity, I guess."

Weiss thought for a second, before making a small, purposeful frown followed with a corresponding nod, the facial expression coupled with the action seemed to say 'fair enough'.

"Okay, Xiao Long, ask away."

"So, was Winter, like, really overprotective? Spent a lot of time around you? Even... slept in the same bed as you sometimes?" Yang riddled off her list of questions that must have made herself seem just as strange to the petite heiress.

Thinking back while looking towards the sky, Weiss responded. "Yes, Yes, and Yes" all rather quickly too, as if there was no doubt in her mind at all, or no harsh feelings or sense of self doubt about it.

"What about as you got older? Like... fourteen, fifteen?"

Weiss remembered how Winter had requested the last night before she go to beacon, she spend it in the same bed as her, the elder Schnee, claiming she would miss Weiss when she left, and that she wanted to sleep like how they always did one last time, for old childhood reasons and nostalgia.

"Yes, Yang, so far, so normal."

"Okay... what about stuff like- Well, I might've made Ruby make sure her underwear fit after she started wearing bras and... well, more adult underwear in general. By, wearing it in front of me." Yang was worried her blush of embarrassment would be noticed by Weiss, but Weiss was lost in her own memories of Winter doing the same thing, and when Weiss was older, Winter would ask Weiss if her underwear fit instead. How... perplexing.

"Yes, Yang," Weiss said with a matching blush "I'm sure this is all normal so far still" she told her with a rather comforting edition of her usual sternness.

Yang breathed out a sigh of relief before asking one last question.

"So, uh, last one. Promise. After Ruby came to me and... started asking about dating, and kissing... I might've offered for her to practice with me, if she ever needed the help. She never took it! And, I was just trying to be helpful for any of Ruby's future girlfriends. But.. well..." The blond was losing herself, half in embarrassment, half in fond memories of closeness with her sweet baby sister.

Weiss remembered almost instantly when she was sixteen and Winter offered her the same help. Unlike Yang and Ruby, Weiss took it, thinking she could turn any usage of good kissing to the company's advantage if she was ever needed to do some industrial espionage. Winter had always been affectionate. This was nothing different. Although she did seem especially affectionate that night.

"Yang. I can confirm that you have been the perfect big sister, just like mine was. You don't need to worry about anything" Weiss reassured the blond, giving her a light and rather affectionate poke on her chiseled abdomen.

The gorgeous sun dragon breathed out a sigh of relief before settling back down into Weiss's pale thighs while the ice princess picked up her book, opened it, and flipped through a few pages before a sentence finally pierced her brain.

"Wait, what do you mean 'Ruby's Future Girlfriends?'"

Yang was, for lack of a stronger word, totally and completely in shock, not to mention near paralyzed by the sudden turn of events. Her mind worked at max speed and as time slowed down, her thoughts took on a near calm tone.

'Ruby's kissing me. She's kissing me! Why is she kissing me? Is she finally taking up the offer I suggested three years ago?

She tastes of strawberries.

Is my mouth open? I think I feel her tongue entering my mouth. Holy Dust she's using her tongue! And it's awesome! Her lips are soft, at least.

I think this may be her first kiss. Did she really mean for it to be with me? Oh wait, I get it now! "Beautiful Blonde!" She was referring to me!

Wait, I'm Ruby's crush?! What the Dust?! I'm mine own sister's crush?!

She really thinks I'm beautiful?

Wow, she is really rubbing up against my chest. I should really be wearing a shirt...'

'Oh yes. Finally. You've been repressing me for so fucking long' a familiar and almost sinister internal presence said, letting itself loose inside the half naked blonde.

'And you are?' Yang asked the voice back all while time had seemingly stopped to her while her little sister's lips were wrapped around her own. Ruby's tongue fully getting to explore the inside of Yang's inviting mouth.

'Your innermost desires. Now, I didn't want to interrupt what you were about to finally do.'

'That being?' Yang questioned herself, which felt strange, but then again, nothing about her situation, which was her being completely topless with slightly oiled breasts whilst being on her rear from a fall while her younger sister was zealously making out with her, was at all normal.

And yet Yang Xiao Long could not care any less.

'Kissing her back'

'But I wasn't going to kiss her back- Oh, there we go.'

Ruby, honestly, could not have been happier when Yang had forcefully grabbed the straps of her tanktop and pulled her closer, the firestarter's own tongue starting an intimate and fierce dance with hers between the two mouths.

The kiss was honey, then both women were getting the nectar. And Ruby's body was positively tingling.

Yes. Finally. This is what I always fucking wanted. More. Give me more.Ruby and her innermost desire spoke simultaneously.

Eventually however, both sisters pulled away from each other after oxygen grew scarce, the pair of them breathing heavily. A thin strand of saliva stretched between the two panting tongues. Yang's eyes were glazed and hazy, high on punch drunk love. Ruby's were alight and burning, ready to finally take what she had wanted for years. Maybe the more accurate word would not be take, but give instead. Before she could stand and begin to strip, a single sound broke the ecstasy into bits and pieces.

"Well" stammered a very surprised and aroused Blake Belladonna. She had been half expecting a few sexy scenes to be ready for her when she returned, what with the heat. The cute reaper or her sister in little to minimal clothing. Ice cubes placed on various body parts, One or more coming back from a cold shower, but this? This sent her mind into shutdown caused by overheat.

"We. Got... Popsicles… And Watermelon" followed Weiss, who was in a very similar state of error as she lifted a plastic bag that had the nearby convenience store's logo branded onto it. She was better suited to such shocks ever since Winter had developed a game called "Sneaky Snuggle Attack", but her mind was nearing overheat too. The sisters, on top of each other, sweating and panting, kissing for long seconds before they had to break apart. Yang topless.

Pink. Both Weiss and Blake spoke internally as their eyes popped.

Weiss decided that after they all talked this out, she would need one of her private showers. Her very, very private and very, very needed and well deserved showers.

Blake would simply need to clean herself as a tiny trickle of blood escaped from her nose at the sight.

Ruby looked down at Yang, who was now sober from the reality settling in after the kiss, but with a hint of the haze still in her eyes. Ruby saw Blake and Weiss blushing with what she thought was embarrassment, and took a second to think if she really could just continue kissing Yang at the moment. What more harm could be done?

No. She had to be a leader.

Really?

Yes.

Standing up and straightening her tank top, she spoke with authority. "Alright, Yang, put on a shirt. Blake, sit next to her on your bed, and Weiss, sit next to me on your bed. Team meeting time" she ordered, doing her best to overpower the extreme, wet heat between her legs.

This was a terrible idea,Ruby and her inner voice spoke simultaneously again. She had literally put herself into checkmate where she just had to tell everyone just why she had kissed Yang. Even worse, she literally couldn't think of a legitimate excuse, worse beyond that, she couldn't even think of a bad one either.

There is a bright side, however.

And what would that be? Ruby replied to her own desires with a bit of snark in her thought-tone.

Don't you remember, Ruby? She started kissing back. The Voice was right of course, Yang was kissing her back, and was completely prepared to do a lot more. That made the little, burning leader smile, and look at her sister with said smile as they all got ready to talk.

And Ruby's thoughts froze, before exploding into fireworks of little rubies, floating down on golden parachutes with burning heart designs on them and applauding the memory that replayed in her mind.

She kissed me back. My sister. The woman I've loved since I was born, have been in love with since I was eleven, and have lusted after since I was twelve... Kissed me back.

"So..." Blake started. "What's going on between you two?" Quite a question indeed.

"Yes, because this all seems a bit… Unexpected, to say the least." Weiss replied, the image of Ruby's tongue retreating back into her mouth playing on repeat in her mind before the memory of that odd night with Winter and kissing interrupted, causing Weiss to shake her head to dispel the unrelated memory.

Yang looked away from everyone else, deciding to stare at her feet, while Ruby gazed at her with a drunken smile.

"Yang?" Ruby asked, with a cocky tinge to her voice.

"Y-yes, Ruby?"

"You were kissing me back, right?" Rubles asked, desperately needing to know.

Yang's eyes shot open to their full size and looked to the right, away from everyone else. "D-Does it really matter, Ruby?"

"Yes, it does Yang." Ruby replied, her sparkling response turning to a mild frown as Yang shot down her hopes a little. She wasn't ashamed, was she?

Yes, it does Yang. Yang's new innermost desires replied at the same time.

"What if I did?" Yang asked, twiddling her thumbs a little and growing all the more heated and stunned by how the day had gone, and now she was suddenly feeling self conscious.

Blake and Weiss froze. They had known that Yang was a bit of a free spirit, and swung many ways, if not all of them, but Ruby? There was no way, was there?

"Then tell me" Ruby continued to plead with her sister as her silver eyes beginning to tear and beg as the lilac orbs of her sister were doing the same, wanting to share what she was thinking all the while, but torn because their teammates were present.

Yang slammed her eyes shut, and squeezed her eyelids closed as hard as she could. Her left arm rubbed the coldness of her metal robot right forearm.

"I did. I kissed you back, Ruby. I kissed my only sister back."

In a second, Ruby's grin went from snarky, to absolute glee. She was completely blown away by Yang's edged out statement, and all she wanted to do was close the gap between them and embrace her sister, to kiss her more and more, again and again.

"Alright, Weiss, Blake. You deserve to know." Ruby turned to them. "I've been in love with Yang for as long as I can physically remember."

All three girl's heads spun towards her at her sudden confession, the three pairs of eyes wide.

"Not to mention, ever since I could feel turned on for the first time, Yang seems to trigger it at will, even if she wasn't aware of the fact" Rubles divulged more, feeling slightly proud of it, acknowledging her severe sister complex and needing to express it.

Yang blushed hard, every bit of skin above her shoulders turning red. If you had shaved her hair, her bald head would've looked like an Oumas christmas light.

"In fact, my obsession with her is probably the only barrier that kept me from making a move on either of you, not to mention Nora, Pyrrha, Coco, Velvet, the list goes on." Ruby continued, gesturing with her hand before laying back and looking at the bottom of her own bed, feeling the relief of finally, finally getting it all out. And it was such a refreshing rush.

You know that after this feeling of accomplishment and relief bleeds away, you're going to be a nervous wreck at the fact you just said all that?

"But the cat's out of the bag. She kissed me back. I could die right now and be content. So, anything you two want to say?" Ruby finished, heaving herself up onto her elbows, settling into a sort of half-recline.

Blake, Weiss and Yang looked at each other for a few seconds before Blake finally replied.

"I have literally wanted to have casual and sometimes rough sex with all three of you, at least, for the past five months" Blake nearly shouted as she too got her feelings off of her shoulders with her hands covering her eyes. She was the most embarrassed she'd ever felt but it was all so liberating to finally tell the girls how shameful and aroused she constantly felt around them.

It was less of a shock for Yang, at least, less of a shock to learn that Blake wanted to sleep with her in particular.

"I can't stand being around Yang in her skimpy outfits, Weiss and her beautiful everything, and the cuteness of you, Ruby. And dust, yes, we seem to go to school with nothing but supermodels, and Pyrrha and Nora do look good after a sparring session, but in reality, I've never made any moves on anyone because I can't actually decide between the three of you!" Blake finished loudly with her head between her hands, looking at the floor.

Weiss's blank face began to crack a small, nearly mad smile which suddenly turned to laughter, before the laughs became guffaws, and finally, the silent laughs and wheezes that make someone look like a seal as they clap their hands together and run out of air.

After her slight fit she finally responded, wheezing with a smile "I'm not the only one! I'm not the only crazy person in Beacon!"

The other three were suddenly confused, but over the silent seconds it finally sank in. It was crazy, beyond belief, but completely understandable once they all thought about it in detail.

After a second, Yang replied. "So... We're all basically attracted to and are probably in love with each other? At least? All four of us?"

The four looking around with wordless conversation, then the other three huntresses in training looked at Yang, and nodded.

"So, this may sound crazy, but my sister kissed me today, and three of the hottest huntresses in Beacon academy just told me they want me. Pretty sure I'm dreaming, and you guys know that old 'in for a penny' saying?" Yang felt like she was slowly losing her mind to what was happening. It was just so crazy.

Suddenly, something possibly disastrous hatched in the leader's mind. It was crazy, mad, and failure meant that the next three years would be miserable. If it succeeded, however, it could be the single greatest idea Ruby had ever had. No jokes. She could feel happy and loved more than she ever could before.

"So, can we try... all of us sort of dating... each other? Maybe see what happens?" The little leader asked meekly and frail like how she always was before puberty. Her puppy dog pout made an appearance, shattering the barrier around the other three girl's hearts, allowing love to finally flow free.

A minute passed before the other 3 girls all nodded one last time, as Nora and Pyrrha were frozen outside the door, listening in ever since they had heard Weiss say that she had bought popsicles.

Pyrrha had blushed at the rose's confession, knowing what would power her private session, if not sessions, that very night. Nora joined her taller teammate in her rash of pale red across the face, but what potential the information could have. She pulled Pyrrha to their room, slowly and quietly shut the door, then opened it again to kick out a rather sweaty Jaune and a silent and resolute as always Ren, then proceeded to shut the door again.

Ozpin, ever agender and asexual sat at his desk, mug in hand, and smiling in satisfaction that the fun was finally getting started. He deactivated his semblance, and the room with the four girls melted away, once again turning into his office where Glynda napped in a chair.

Without anyone noticing, the AC somehow turned back on.

Omake: I'll Give You Sympathy

Soon after, but not too soon.

"Are you sure you're ready for this, Mister Arc? I could give this assignment to someone else" Ozpin told Jaune, who was nervous beyond all belief and slightly trembling at what the headmaster had asked of him.

"I'm sure, Professor" Jaune responded, swallowing his fear and doubt. He knew he had to do this, even if he had to alone and without telling anyone, not Pyrrha or the rest of his team, withholding information from them for what was surely going to be half a year or longer.

"Thank you, Mister Arc. There's no one better for the job."

And with that, Ozpin hit a button on the intercom, opening a line to the speakers in the waiting room a few floors below.

"Miss Fall, please come upstairs."

Jaune Arc and Ozpin waited in silence as Cinder Fall made her way up the elevator, before the doors opened, and the faux Fall Maiden stepped out and stopped next to Jaune.

"Is there anything I can do for you, professor?" Cinder asked, in a self satisfied tone of voice.

The next few seconds would change her, Jaune's, Ozpin's, and the entire population of Remnant's lives forever.

"Indeed there is, Miss Fall. The first thing you can do is hold still. The second thing you can do is answer a question" Ozpin instructed her as he readied the procedure, slightly smiling, nervous and still relieved all at once. It was all up to Jaune now. Jaune, and whatever deities may be watching.

"Hold still? For-"

After Ozpin activated his Cane, named 'Ultu Ulla', and his movements were invisible. Yellow dust turned into an aura activated time stop as Ozpin slowly, in his perception, grabbed a belt with a rather large keyhole as a buckle, walked to Cinder Fall, put it around her waist, closed it with a rather hefty but muffled click in the stopped time, and walked back to his desk before allowing time to flow regularly once again.

"-whatever reason?" Cinder continued not feeling the effects of Ozpin's sorcery until the device was already around her and the deed was done, at least half done.

"For that reason, Miss Fall" Ozpin said, pointing to her waist.

Cinder had a look of amused confusion which quickly became one of full confusion as she tugged on the now stuck and bound belt before her face took on a visage of full on fury. Slowly, she raised her head and leveled a gaze at Ozpin. If looks could kill, Ozpin would be a charred corpse.

"And my question, Miss Fall, is this. Do you take me for an idiot?"

Cinder made no effort to make any sound, save for heavy breathing from her nose.

"Apparently you do. You come to my home. My school, my kingdom, and assume you can usurp me without myself ever noticing? I see everything, Miss Fall. Including your adorable little attempt to take over Vale" Ozpin barrelled down at her, with a stern voice and his smile of self pride washed away to teach her her own wrong doings, all while Jaune clenched his feeble fist.

The white haired magician stood, and turned his back to the pair, staring out into the night from the windows behind his desk.

"Honestly, Salem. Such arrogance."

Cinder froze, before raising her hand in a flash to Ozpin, the palm of which quickly glowed a prominent and dark orange... and it faded, as she began to laugh uncontrollably. Ozpin noticed this happen and his smile became one of wicked amusement before returning to his chair.

"Ah, Cinder, I see you have discovered the side effect of the belt I put on you. I've been working with General Ironwood on Aura Suppression technology for quite a while. This particular belt takes your excess aura and it puts it towards a negative stimulus."

Jaune took note of Cinder now physically rolling on the floor, laughing or crying with tears and nearly found it slightly amusing, to see such a villain be reduced to such a state, before he realized she was trying to say something. And her smile... it wasn't exactly happy.

"James suggested pain, or paralysis. I suggested something I believe is much worse, although, you would not expect it to be."

Jaune got down on his knees and listened closely to Cinder's words being choked out through nearly silent laughs and horse wheezes.

"P-p-please. Ss-s-s-s-top. I ca-ca-can't breathe. It hur-ur-ur-urts. I can't breathe" she edged out in a complete haze of stunned pain and crippling cramps to her lower chest and limbs. It was torture, through and through.

Jaune saw the tears were not of happiness, or just from laughing. These were tears of panic and helplessness.

"I suggested tickling." Ozpin said with a malicious smile from his phallic chair.

"You need to stop! She can't breathe!" Jaune said suddenly standing. Ozpin fired a proud look at Jaune for a few seconds while Cinder's breaths grew weaker and weaker until Ozpin pulled a small remote from his pocket, and turned a dial, stopping her laughs, and instead replacing them with deep breaths and soft sobs.

"Perhaps this just showed you why exactly Jaune is here, Miss Fall. Jaune Arc is one of the kindest, hardest working, and most pure hearted students at my academy. This is why I have given him the task of reforming you, Miss Fall."

The nearly helpless Cinder Fall looked up at Ozpin in surprise, before turning to look at the blonde knight, then looking back at Ozpin in worry.

"I think you can be a valuable member of society, Miss Fall. And I believe Mister Arc is just the man to help you become one."

He stood again and walked over to Jaune, placing the remote in his hands, a small glow emanating from where the remote touched his palm.

"He is now responsible for you. If that remote ever enters the hands of anyone except Jaune Arc due to it now bonding to his aura signature, the belt will short out, and begin to launch it's fatal protocol. This will most likely result in your death from either heart attack, or asphyxiation. You two are never to be separated." The ageless man declared rather coldly while Jaune looked to remote with a trace of remorse in his righteous eyes.

Ozpin travelled back over to his desk, sat down and waited for Cinder to rise, which she eventually did, shakily.

"Now, I am aware that his teammates are currently not big supporters of yours, so you two will be staying in your room in the visitor dorms with one... Mercury Black whilst two of your partners in crime are being enrolled in Beacon and are under my protection" Ozpin divulged, causing a spark in Cinder's amber eyes.

"This means away from you. In the near future, the three of you will be moved to an apartment in Vale, where one more associate will be waiting for you to being his reformation, sans the belt."

Jaune nodded in understanding while Cinder's face simply turned to one of ultimate defeat.

"Finally, Miss Fall. The belt will allow you to access a small amount of aura. Enough to ward off a few hits from a normal person, maybe heal up small cuts and bruises, even some minor aura manipulation. Nothing more. You do not wish to have an accident this time, do you? I have a mop and bucket on hand, but no extra underwear if you repeat tonight's reaction" Ozpin continued with a raised eyebrow.

"No, sir." replied a downtrodden Cinder Fall.

"Excellent. The two of you are dismissed" The wizard then returned to his coffee and looked to his computer.

As Ozpin watched the numbers on top of the elevator slowly count down to one as the lift returned them to the ground floor, Ozpin stood one more time, and looked out of his window, seeing the lights of the City Of Vale so close. He nearly wondered if he went too far, but quickly reminded himself of just what the woman was truly planning. He needed to destroy her spirit. Humiliate her. What had that old friend of Ozpin's told him once?

When we hit our lowest point, we are open to the greatest change.

He had made the only tea Ozpin had ever enjoyed.

"What fun." Ozpin whispered to no one before taking a sip of hot chocolate. "Let's see what comes of it."


	3. Breakfast At Tiffany's

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The girls all prepare for the day ahead, showering and finding some semblance of their lives after an adventurous night before. Breakfast sparks Nora's small rivalry with Neo over the age old question; Waffles or Pancakes? Winter coaxes her lovers out of the house and off to Beacon with her usual loving vigour. However things at Jaune's apartment slowly roll downhill, the pressure of their day getting to Cinder a little...

Foreword by Headmaster Ozpin of Beacon Academy.

“Many people may wonder, in the future, why I went to such drastic measures to bring seventeen girls together in one house, truly and completely in love, spending millions out of the schools budget. Was it for glory? Scientific curiosity? Fame for discovering the capability of weaponized orgasms?”

“No, I shall say. No, I did not do it for glory, fame, or riches. I did it out of the kindness of my heart. I did it for love, and truth, and the pursuit of happiness. I did it for all of Remnant. I shall ask no thanks in return. The peace around me will be all the thanks I need.”

“What do you think, Glynda?”

“I’m thinking two things. The first being how exactly you managed to get yourself and your bedsheets to partially phase through the wall and roof above it, the second being that I don’t care what you’re trying to suggest to me, you’re extending the vacation by another day for putting me through this.”

“You’re so cold, Glynda.”

“Probably because you called me into work before the sun fully rose on an already freezing day.”

“You know, when Bart and Peter say you lack a sense of humor, I’m the one that defends you.”

From my desk to yours,  
Headmaster Ozpin of Beacon Academy

Many people would assume Nora’s favorite part of the day would be the morning. Nora’s love affair with the round, golden, soft breakfast food known as pancakes was both well known, and well feared. Many diners throughout Vale had the “Valkyrie Protocol” which allowed them to call in chefs from other nearby restaurants in order to keep up with the bottomless girl’s ordering speed. 

This assumption would be both correct, and incorrect.

Yes, breakfast was her favorite part of the day, however, Nora had many favorite parts of the day. She loved waking up and feeling all of her loved and welcome girlfriends around her, squirming around and being able to feel all their beautiful parts and dimensions rub up against her thin shirt and shorts. Nora would give up many things to simply remain in the precious limbo of time that fell after the night and before breakfast, when naked and clothed bodies were around her with beautiful faces all lightly snoozing, a rainbow of hair all around. It was like heaven to her, a paradise of womanly love that she would never want to leave. 

She had dreams like that many a times before she entered into this relationship. Ren kept a journal of them. That notebook now belonged to Ciel, who took up the torch after Ren had moved in with Fox, Yatsu, Sage, and Scarlet. Their relationship wasn’t romantic, Ren had told them on moving day, just brothers in arms who enjoyed each other’s company and would occasionally all go out on completely platonic dates together.

Anyway, breakfast was also Nora’s favourite meal of the day. 

The lovely little ginger always enjoyed the first morning shower also. Sharing it with Emerald that morning, and being able to stare at the gem’s darkened skin and beautifully mint hair as much as she wanted before the girlfriend spun the ginger around, gave a smirk, and mesmerised the little leg breaker with blood red, beautifully crimson eyes 

Emerald gave her ginger a long, sensual but also sexual, soft, warm, and wet kiss, with her fingers sliding their way up the length of Nora’s toned and wet thigh while the water continued to run and steam up the bathroom. They may have gone further the previous night, all the girls did most nights, but having Emerald’s lips making contact with her own, having her fingers trace up the inside of her thigh and breach her warm entrance just for a brief space of time while they showered, it made Nora almost leave herself again. 

Emerald Sustrai often had that effect on most of the girls, if not all of them. 

It was always nice to be clean while also feeling full of any of her girlfriend’s fingers, no matter what they did Nora could not get dirty again due to the constant stream of warm water. It made the climax all the more stunning. It also left Nora with low blood pressure, causing her to have be supported by Emerald, lest she fall and injure herself on the shower floor before she could have her first, and most important meal of the day.

Perhaps that was why showers were always magical at the townhouse. 

Nora also loved getting dressed, seeing the chaos that the other girls went through, trying to decide who's bra was whose, which uniform could fit which person, who actually wanted to wear a uniform, as Neon tended to not, nor did Penny or Emerald. There were always a plethora of shenanigans. 

Where was Yang’s bra and how could someone mistake it for theirs since her breast size was questionably bigger than Winter’s? 

And who was wearing Coco’s underwear? Winter again let out a giggle as she seductively led her little rose into another of the bathrooms before they kissed behind the closing door. The tall and white haired beauty was positively giddy about showering with her little petal again. Ruby was pretty much her favourite little sister besides Weiss.

But, minutes later when nearly all of the girls were showered, sated and dressed, passing a rather sweaty Yang, Neon, and Velvet and a blushing, panting Pyrrha as Nora went down to the second floor and they went up to the third, a heavenly scent filled the nostrils of the young Valkyrie. One of warmth. One of hunger. One of food. 

Nora sped downstairs with a speed to match her little girlfriend in crimson as she peeked into the industrial sized kitchen and spied the twins working with the favorite android in order to have all the girls in the house well fed before being shipped off to beacon for the day. It was another heavenly sight, seeing Penny’s fluttering heart on her sleeve as she cooked away with all the foods, meats and such while the twins fooled around trying to help her, making the ginger let out such a sweet melodic laugh as Melanie and Militia nearly danced around her, making sure nothing was being burned or overcooked.

Like Winter had to do so many times when she saw Penny behaving like a real girl and hearing her fully natural and organic laugh, Nora had to cover her mouth to prevent the ‘aw’ escaping from it.

Melanie and Militia had been working odd jobs in order to live ever since they were nine years old, coming so far since. Vale had plenty of less than reputable places where illegal child labor was more of a suggestion than an actual law, and a little hole in the wall restaurant was one of these such establishments, where the color coded twins happened to work as line cooks sixteen hours out of the day, quitting after a month when they realized the cooks paid them as one person working, instead of two. While the experience in its entirety was terrible, the two were thankful they did learn some useful skills, such as cooking good food fast.

As Nora drooled over the rapidly cooking disks on the griddle, she noticed Penny managing to multitask, cooking some eggs. 

‘For Yangarang’, Nora thought, then some bacon and sausages, ‘for my Velvety’, some sort of egg pie with ham in it? ‘Probably for my little Schnee.’ 

And as Nora saw Penny pouring some batter into a press, her eyes narrowed before she felt a pinch on her plump rear and spun around to see the only girl in the house shorter than her.

“Neo.”

The small ice cream themed vixen made a face, closing her eyes and pulling out her small and experienced tongue to tease her ginger girlfriend. Winter and Weiss had gotten a phone with a highly advanced text to speech function which could even inflect and emote, but Neo barely ever needed to use it when teasing. Truthfully, most of the girlfriends didn’t her to need it, as Neo’s expressiveness was enough on her own. 

Yes, there were times when someone was going shopping and a raised eyebrow couldn’t exactly indicate that they needed more hand soap for the second bathroom, and charades tended to take up just a bit too much time for Ciel, so the Schnee sisters found the tool to be the easiest and fastest possible solution. Still Neo enjoyed her smug muteness at times.

“Getting ready to enjoy your tough, tasteless, morning torture?” Nora began, squinting a little playfully. 

“About as ready as you are to watch all your syrup just roll off the side of your disks of batter. Too bad it can’t actually hold onto the sticky sweetness, like a waffle can.” Neo programed from her PDA, taunting Nora with a sly and sultry feminine voice with a deep pitch to it that suited her executive look.

Yes, it was true Nora did love Neo. She loved her flexibility, her protectiveness, her intimidation to those who she might see a threat.

‘Her ability to put an ankle behind her head standing up’, said something still in a haze from last night. The image was simply to die for in one’s visual reference bank for when Nora was alone, or at least, when she needed it. 

But when it came to breakfast, tensions ran high. Mild play fights would break out sometimes in the heat of hunger and those teasing the others over what unspeakable things happened the night before, only for it to end in kisses and even more teasing. Well, not ever since Glynda put a ‘no weapons at the table’ rule, which included Magnhild and Cherry; Neo’s umbrella, as well as Ember Celica, Crescent Rose and the others, but Nora and Neo were the worst, with their breakfast foods rivalry. 

As the heat between them started to rise, they both felt a hand grab at their arms, and forcefully pull them out of the kitchen, and once they broke eye contact, they realized the girl pulling them was none other than Ruby Rose herself.

“Sweeties! No fighting in the kitchen! Or at the table! Or anywhere in the house! Remember, you’re both at your last warning before you have to spend a night on the couch” the little rose had to remind them, channeling her inner Glynda and Winter, having just finished her long and rather loud shower with the elder Schnee, who was still dazed and recuperating while naked on the massive and now empty bed. 

 

A shiver ran through both Nora’s and Neo’s body at the thought of spending a night on the couch. Yes, it was actually incredibly comfortable, and it wasn’t rare for occasional groups of five or six of the girls to spend the night there, falling asleep after a gaming or movie marathon. In the house, rhythm games reigned supreme, but to be ordered to the couch without them being involved was a much worse punishment than it sounded. 

After one became accustomed to sleeping around so many others with so much warmth, hearing so many heartbeats, and listening to so many sounds of calm breathing lulling one off to sleep, the silence and chill of sleeping alone always sounded nearly nightmarish. Both Nora and Neo had spent one night on the couch each, and it was enough to never want to go back.

And yes, while they both had a fair talent for getting into trouble and teasing shenanigans, the couch was a big enough threat to stop another incident. 

As both the ice cream girl and the teeny booper took their seats across from each other the view around the table was both varied, and chaotic.

First, Winter. Usually Glynda would sit at the center of the head of the table, but with her heading into work early, the white haired beauty had taken her place, out from the shower in the minutes as Neo and Nora waited for their food. While Glynda usually had half a pot of coffee for the most important meal of the day, Winter had a single cup with an imported Atlesian chocolate topped croissant. 

As she sipped her warm mug slowly, in a blissful and attractive silence, looking completely flawless to all her girlfriends and little sisters. Occasionally taking polite bites of her sensual pastry, the white haired beauty absentmindedly stroked Emerald’s hair when the gem wasn’t paying attention. Too occupied with the chaotic bliss of seeing all her girlfriends bar her mistress, who she was already longing the sweet caress of. 

Next to Winter, on her left, was said Emerald, the little gem. She preferred to stay close to Glynda or Winter, feeling protected by them. She was currently having a ham and cheese sandwich on sourdough, which she put together herself. Emerald was never the biggest fan of breakfast foods, and prefered to either skip it, or have a quick sandwich. Often was the jewel practical over comfortable, learned from years of having to steal and struggle to survive and scrounging what she could. 

Next to her, and currently maintaining a conversation with her about how to increase the power or efficiency of Emerald’s weapons, the Twin Mantis, was Ruby Rose. In front of her was a half full bowl of Pumpkin Pete’s Marshmallow Flakes. Terrible for anyone who liked them, honestly, but Ruby’s metabolism could down an entire thanksgiving dinner in one sitting and barely gain five pounds. 

Plus, Ruby always liked to shoot Pyrrha a smile whenever the Invincible Girl saw her enjoying her bowl of milk and cereal. It was undeniably cute.

Pyrrha listened to the little rose’s conversation with the gem, enraptured by her little red’s knowledge of dust infused bullets as she downed her own bowl of milk and cereal. Not Pumpkin Pete’s, however, as she couldn’t stand the taste after so many retakes of having to take a big bite of it for the commercials. Thankfully, since coming to Beacon, the brand deals stopped, as did most of the paparazzi. Although, it was probably due however, due to the fact that her girlfriends carried various explosives, guns, and blades on them at nearly all times.

All of the girls would lose life and limb to protect their girlfriends, at the drop of a hat. 

Blake sat quietly, entranced by the book she held in front of her face as she slowly ate her bagel with lox and cream cheese, lovingly put together by Penny. She knew it was a bit stereotypical for the cat faunus to love fish, but she had to admit that it was her favorite food. Not to mention the Schnees could always get their hands on some damn good fish whenever the onyx haired teen asked.

Weiss sat beside Blake, also enjoying breakfast while reading. While Winter had told her, along with Penny and Ruby, to not stress about Oobleck’s end of term exam today, that didn’t mean she couldn’t fit in a bit of extra studying before classes, no matter how itchy Winter’s glare was making the side of her head filled. Or how rambunctious Yang was, despite it being so early.

Yang, on the other hand, was having a rather loud discussion with Neon and Nora about who would win in a fight; a Legend Class Nevermore, A Deathstalker, or a King Taijitu. 

The buxom blond was on the side of the Deathstalker, stabbing into her sunny side up eggs with the fork being held in her synthetic and almost honeycomb inspired hand and forearm every time she argued that neither the feathers nor the fangs could pierce that armor.

Neon, in the middle, was arguing that the Nevermore could hit the Deathstalker off a cliff, then use its talons to decapitate both. 

“And just think, it would be super fun to ride one! Like so much fun, that I couldn’t believe it!” She was exclaiming and standing up on her stool in her bubbly excitement. Everyone giggled to her hyperactive cuteness as she blushed upon the following silence. All the while spitting Wild Berry Poptart crumbs in front of her.

Nora, however, argued that the King Taijitu would be able to hide in the forest, among the trees and strike lightning quick when the Nevermore swept too low and while the armor plates of the Deathstalker would be immune to piercing they would also be vulnerable to the coiled crush that the King Taijitu use when hunting large prey. Or, she would be saying if her mouth wasn’t currently packed full of pancakes and all that came out were mumbles and puffs of air from the corners of her mouth.

Neo’s prediction for her girlfriend was proving to come true thus far.

Melanie, to shift the tone, was simply listening to the argument in amazement at how they were all ridiculous arguments, they were also very cohesive too. 

She was much further behind in school work than everyone else except Militia due to not attending school since 4th grade, but this was more useful than listening to Professor Port’s stories all day long. The silent sister couldn’t contribute anything, not just for lack of substance to add to the argument, but because her toast with peanut butter was sticking her tongue to the roof of her mouth. She loved it.

Militia, however, was currently reading the newspaper while enjoying a nice bit of toast with jam. Red Currant Jam, to be precise. She had always loved the reliability of the newspaper, and was the only reason the house even had a subscription. 

A sudden and rather distracting obituary caught her eye, for some obvious reason, as she browsed. A handsome looking bull faunus was in the picture above the text, black and white but Militia could tell exactly who he was. It looked like an old photo, and it was, before he donned his mask and malicious attitude. The monochrome of the polaroid made it so the hair was nothing but a shade of grey. It read as such.

Adam Taurus; a man of conviction and loyalty. While later in life he became a leader of the less than reputable gang known as ‘The White Fang’, he started out as a protestor, working for faunus rights and equality everywhere in Vale and Vacuo. Adam was found not too long ago in a compromising position, assumed to be caused by the phenomenon known as autoerotic asphyxiation. His wake and subsequent funeral will be held on Monday and Tuesday of the coming week.

‘Monday and tuesday…’ Militia thought. ‘We’ll be in Mistral by then.’ A slight gasp left her bated lips, but it was not one of remorse. No, not at all. She doubted anyone at the table would miss him, least of all the beautiful faunus reading her book.

Finally, the last person at the table, Neo, was quietly enjoying her breakfast of waffles and syrup. No talking, nothing distracting her from the delicious batter and beautiful sustenance that she craved every morning put in front of her by her wonderful mechanical girlfriend. Just good food and the enjoyment of such.

This left four empty chairs at the table.

First was Glynda, wrestling Ozpin out of his bedsheets from the ceiling. 

Second was Penny. Penny did indeed joined her girls for lunch on the weekends and dinner every day. In the morning’s, however, she preferred to clean up after cooking while listening to some jazzy aftertunes, enjoying the peace before the chaos of the halls of Beacon, and not to mention the student body that weren’t her girlfriends. 

The adorable android rarely felt close to anyone else, and feared being judged or made fun of for not only being synthetic, but also a self declared polyamorous lesbian like many others of her girlfriends. But she remembered that Pyrrha, Yang, Coco, Ceil and little Ruby would give their lives to protect her, all of her partners would, and it made Penny Polendina smile blissfully as she cleaned. 

It reminded her of living with her father again. She missed him, but was so happy he allowed her to live with the girls she so loved and adored, it all made her feel all the more real, as if all the humanity around her was contagious, and Penny was gladly accepting it. She wanted to be real more than anything in the world, and it was happening with every second that passed when she was with her girlfriends. 

Penny was more in love than she ever possibly could be, and Ceil saw it in her eyes when she looked to them all around the table. 

The human synth stopped, and blinked, realizing she just absentmindedly called herself real, pausing to wipe some escaped dish water from her cheek, wondering when exactly it splashed on her before continuing her cleaning. 

The most peculiar thing was that she had felt it, on her pores and simply discarded it as if she couldn’t. But she definitely felt it. She felt everything with her new upgrades and software patches. 

‘She’s getting more real and more adorable everyday’ Winter thought before another blissful bite of her croissant 

Coco and Ciel shared a very specific and similar routine. Both took half of an energy bar before heading off for their own personal schedules. Coco spent the extra time to put together her outfit, while Ceil used her time more productively to herself.

And by productivity, it always involved her notebook.

But breakfast continued as normal, Coco eventually choosing a simple ensemble; a warm, baggy green sweater with a slightly darker and muted mustard skirt, a pair of thigh high socks and heels to match the sweater, topped off with her illustrious gold necklace with a rather large medallion. Ciel eventually finished her morning session after a few more tries at breaking her record, however none of them yielded any success. 

Penny finished cleaning and retrieved everyone’s bags, a slight mothering hen with Glynda gone and unable to march everyone into order, because Winter was too blissful to do it

As all the girls put away their washed their dishes, with the occasional yell of water splashing on someone’s uniform or normal clothes, Penny, Coco, and Ciel all watched as their girlfriends chaotically danced from their place on the stairs. Ciel sat below Penny, in between her legs, who sat between Coco’s legs a stair below her. Penny loved feeling such intense heat from both sides of her, one of the reasons she so loved sleeping in bed with everyone.

The algorithms were helping her a lot, and it made her smile immovable.

Penny shivered as she felt the fashionista plant light kisses along her neck, utterly sensual and in touch with all her soft spots that sent confusing signals throughout her inner cybernetics. The android would always interprate them as butterflies in her synthetic stomach, and it was magical to her. She knew Coco did enjoy exhibition as Weiss did, but the flawless fashionista did also enjoy turning her girlfriends on in public, in front of other people, and leaving them hot and bothered.

Penny didn’t know what exactly caused her to feel arousal, besides the extreme lengths her girlfriends would go to just to make her feel it night after night. She knew she had designed her own sexually compatible parts and brought them to show Ruby as soon as she understood they were fully up and running, but the ginger synth had felt arousal before she had finished the parts. There was something inside her programming that had always felt it. Before she came to the house, she was able to switch it on and off at will.

Now? 

Penny gasped and shivered again and again as Coco’s luscious lips continued their tour of the android’s collarbone. What Coco did not know, however, was that Ciel had decided to move from her spot between Penny’s legs and instead decided to take up residence next to them, her chin resting on her thigh, and a hand in between Penny’s legs.

All while the rest of the girls were continuing to get ready around the house. 

Ciel, with her other hand, pulled out her phone and began the stopwatch function.

After a few minutes, Penny had been reduced to a steaming mess, nearly unconscious, and leaning back against Coco, the brunette lulling her with arms around her tummy and kissing the top of her head. Ciel recorded a few numbers in her notebook, and licked her fingers clean of the warming artificial lubricant. As always, it tasted similar to some fruit, sweet and tingling on the analyst's tongue. She was content, and of course so was Penny in Coco’s arms.

‘Blackberries’, Ciel recorded next to the number in her notebook before closing it and getting Coco’s, Penny’s, and her own school bag. Coco already had her handbag, knowing Ciel could never even hope to carry it.

Soon enough, all the girls were bundled up in their coats, and walked out into the frosty morning. Ready, so ready for the final day to pass as quickly as possible and for them to be on the Schnee Jet heading towards Mistral for a warm week doing nothing but being together in the sands and water, and being unconditionally in love.

Winter reviewed her own and Glynda’s class schedule.

‘Let’s see.’ Glynda and her each had only one class that least day, due to classes wrapping up for the semester. Winter had first period, ‘Advancement with Dust’ with Neon, Neo, Militia, Melanie, Weiss, Penny, and Ruby. 

Then they had Professor Oobleck second period. Glynda had Emerald, Yang, Blake, Coco, Velvet, Pyrrha, and Nora for second period, ‘Sparring Class’, while they had Professor Port for first. Thankfully, Glynda had told Winter and Ciel that she was going to give everyone in class the day off from sparring, and was just going to show a short piece on legendary hunting techniques, just to get everyone into the holiday mood, including herself. 

Glynda needed more than anyone to get right in the mood for her two weeks of fun and love with her girlfriends.

Winter breathed a heavy sigh, knowing tomorrow, they would all be departing together for a trip to Mistral. Sunny, warm, sexy Mistral.

“Excuse us!” 

Winter turned and saw two of her best students, Jaune Arc and Mercury Black standing behind her. She had apparently paused right before stepping on the pathway up to the airship, and was blocking them.

“Oh, I’m so sorry!” Winter said as she sped her walking up, noting how the two boys had their hands linked. They had been dating for quite some time, but the executive beauty had never had the liberty of seeing just how close they really were out in public.

‘How cute!’

“No problem, no problem. See you in class Winter!” Jaune said as he passed her on the side, dragging the dark haired, tired boy with him. “Come on Mercury wake up!”

‘Let’s get to it.’

Winter, poised and ready for their last day, stepped onto the airship and sat next to both her little rose and her little snowpea who leaned their heads on her shoulders, and enjoyed the rumble of the engines as they entered the sky, flying to beacon for one last day before vacation.

Sausages, eggs, and bacon all fried beside each other in a massive pan on the gas stove. 

Jaune had finally gotten showered and dressed, and took the time to make all of his lovers a nice, filling, home cooked breakfast. It made the blonde feel empowered, as if nothing that day could go wrong, but how so much was potentially going to.

Toast popped, juice was poured, plates were served, and Roman was heading out the door.

‘Wait, what?’ Jaune thought as he heard the latch pop.

“Roman, where are you going?” Jaune asked, an pink apron that said ‘bare skin and popping grease do not mix, no matter the attraction of the cook’ which he had to have custom made after the first three incidents.

“Sorry, babycakes,” the bright orange haired, dapper gentleman blew a kiss as he started, “but I need to head in an hour early to oversee a dust delivery, our first official one!” Roman said, coming back to grab a piece of toast, some scrambled eggs, and a few dashes of hot sauce, giving Jaune a kiss on both cheeks and the mouth before biting into his spicy breakfast and nearly sprinting out the door, cane in hand with his dependable leather jacket on over another random shirt he ordered online. 

It was colored to look like a nebula, with the words: ‘Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?’ Jaune didn’t understand it. He wondered if that was the point.

Roman no longer wore his classic white suit combo, but he kept the hat and hair style. A bit less recognizable, at least. It was all supposed to ooze change, and a new life for the reformed convict. At one time he may have lived for crime. But now, with Jaune and with Cinder, he wanted nothing more than a peaceful and loving life. 

Maybe that’s why he wore the weird shirts, to distract from the hat.

Ever since Roman and Cinder had opened their own Dust Store, ‘Dust In The Wind’, they had been making money pretty regularly. It also helped that they had a large build up of powdered and crystallized dust that had just been sitting in warehouses for a few months, building up actual dust ever since the plans had fallen apart. It was all stolen, of course, over the period where Roman lived for crime, but now, it was all free to sell. Well, not free of course, only, no one questioned it if Jaune told them not to.

Mercury sat down, after giving Jaune a kiss on the cheek as thanks, and began to eat. 

But where was Cinder?

After removing his apron, and walking past a sitting, eating, Merc, Jaune took a second of self satisfaction at seeing a pattern of red hearts on a yellow background where his pants had slipped down. Mercury was near enough always the most adorable thing Jaune could see throughout his day.

The blond pillar left, and after seeing that Cinder wasn’t in the living room, that left one of two places she could be. Luckily, Jaune guessed right on the first try, as he saw Cinder sitting on the bed, her knees under her chin, and worry etched on her face.

‘No, Oum above, that’s not worry. That’s panic.’

“Cinder?” The sympathetic and worried blond asked his almost trembling girlfriend as she cradled herself. The woman who once thought she held all the cards snapped her head towards the blonde knight, and became visibly relieved at his presence.

“Jaune, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to worry you. I just got caught up in thinking” amber eyes tried to excuse themselves, rushing to no longer look ragged and completely fine instead.

The blond could certainly tell otherwise. 

Jaune tilted his head to the right, sighed, and walked up to her, sitting behind his girlfriend on the bed, he drew Cinder in for a large hug, feeling the tremors of an oncoming panic attack disappear in the wake of his aura. Jaune’s aura, Cinder had told him, had some beneficial effects. Besides just healing himself, it also healed minor wounds of people in close proximity. More surprisingly, and rare however, was the fact it also seemed to have some effect on the mental state of a person, calming and improving it gradually.

What was surprising was the fact that Jaune acted well enough to make Cinder think he didn’t already know such a fact.

“It’ll be okay, Cinder. I promise. You’ll be okay. I don’t care if I have to destroy the machine mid way through, I won’t let you not come home tomorrow” Jaune promised her, holding her close in his sweet and warm embrace.

They had been through so much together, and Cinder had been through a lot more on her own, lost so much and destroyed a lot of what she held dear due to her own misguidedness and loyalty to those who would control her for wrongdoing. That was why he was drawn to her, to help her, because all she wanted and needed was to be loved, not controlled. Not by Ozpin, not by Jaune himself, and not by the witch Cinder never talked about. 

Cinder shivered one more time in her knight’s grasp before leaning back into his embrace, resting the back of her head on his left shoulder.

“You’re too good to me, Jaune.”

“Funny, my teammates used to say the same thing.”

He gave her a kiss on the cheek before getting up, and throwing on his coat and grabbing Mercury’s. “I know you think Mercury doesn’t care about tomorrow, but he does. He cares about you, Cinder. We all do.” Finally finding the book he needed for Ms. Schnee’s class that day, he tossed it in his bag, ready to face the daily grind with his boyfriend.

“Merc and I need to get on the airship. Breakfast is on the table. And Roman already left. Eat before you go, okay?” Jaune asked his girl as readied to leave, although not really wanting to leave his troubled maiden. He did love and care for her so. 

“Okay.” Cinder responded meekly.

“Promise?”

“Yes, I promise.”

Jaune stared at her a second more.

“I love you, Cindy.”

“I love you too, Jaune.”

“I’ll see you when we get back later!” Mercury popped his head in.

“Later, bitch!”

Cinder let loose a small laugh. “Later, bitch.” She replied in a faint whisper, deflated enough not to call out, although her dear friend had made her chuckle, Mercury always did no matter what. 

After hearing the door shut, she walked into the kitchen where a single plate of food was waiting for her. No appetite. Like she was already… Something lost, but still she ate, to keep her promise to her bold knight. Taking a small bite, she felt her body cry out for more delicious sustenance. She began to shovel food into her mouth, Jaune’s cooking always being the best.

‘No. I can’t lose hope. I need to make it through today.’ 

‘Tomorrow. Tomorrow isn’t my funeral.’

‘It’s the first day of my new life, leaving the old one behind.


	4. Thunderstruck

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pyrrha and Nora discover the true nature of Team Rwby's relationship and decide they would like to join, confessing their love for the girls and revealing that the two redheads have been dating each other for some time. The beds are pushed together that very night and things between the six girls begin to heat up.

Foreword by Headmaster Ozpin of Beacon Academy.

“As odd as it might be, I, Ozpin, am not the largest admirer of chess. Perhaps if they did not describe it as a ‘game of war’, I would be able to enjoy it more. 

“In reality, war does not have such rules and luxuries that chess affords. Units can move in more than one way. One does not have to take another game piece if it is available. The fall of the king should not necessarily mean the end of the game, simply that the game has either changed, or only begun.

“Thankfully, with the advent of newer and more advanced technology, war games are starting to become more and more realistic, adding in strategy and acting as grunts, rather than commanders. As I was never a front line warrior, more suited to support and strategy during my time as a student, taking the opportunity to fight like a soldier is quite enjoyable.

“That being said, Camping certainly is not a legitimate strategy ThunderLotus420xxx024. Just you wait until they patch this map and watch your KD drop like a stone.”

From my desk to yours,  
Headmaster Ozpin of Beacon Academy.

 

“We want in.”

“What do you mean, you want in?”

It had been about a week since the confession, and Yang still couldn’t tell where her dreams ended and her reality started. It was all so odd for her. But then again, nothing about her new love life could even attempt to seem normal.

After all, she was dating three other girls, one of them her sister. Her only sister. And it had been fantastic.

Ruby had also been so affectionate. In the mornings, she would purposely change in front of Yang, and the blonde found herself activating her aura on the way to class to remove herself of any wet spots with a burst of heat; it was dastardly and unkempt of her increasingly flirty sister. But when little Ruby dipped her pajama pants down passed her pillowy cheeks that Weiss enjoyed grabbing, Blake enjoyed massaging, and the elder dragon enjoyed slapping whenever their nights would get a little too steamy, Yang would always lose herself when Ruby’s naked ass was on show for her, but always unreachable due to the time constraint until breakfast and classes. How Yang yearned for contact. 

At night? Ruby apparently no longer felt she needed the restroom to relieve her heat and pressure. What weirded Yang out was not the fact that she felt the need to help, but that she herself had enjoyed doing it so much.

It had not surprised Yang at all that her sister tasted sweet. The luscious scent and taste of strawberries, mixed in with the dragon’s own pure heat. 

Weiss had become strangely kind. The beautiful ice princess had been doing her best and going out of the way to pay the girls way through everything and buy presents, one of the only ways she could think of to shower them all with affection. And after all, her credit card seemed to be endless and bottomless, like most Schnee cards are. She nearly had an anxiety attack multiple times when Yang had told her that she didn’t want any more gifts before the buxom and lavish blond could explain that she was literally running out of space to store them. All of the girls were, except Ruby, since most of her gifts were cookies and other baked goods and only physical for moments after receiving them. Weiss knew that Rubles enjoyed the treats more than any other possible gift, except perhaps weapon mods. Although, because of all the baked goods swiftly bought and handed to her by the frantic heiress, the excess had gone right to the little leader’s rear, only making her taunting during the morning to Yang even worse. 

Blake had, in all fairness, not changed or adapted that much at all, as if she didn’t feel like she needed to. All she had done was start showing affection towards all of her girlfriends. And she loved it. She loved being bisexual, and now she adored realizing she was polyamorous even more. It was all so much freedom and love, and it meant three or more hands rubbing and grazing her feline ears at night. How she purred beyond belief. She had never felt this happy. 

Yang had, of course, known that the alluring and enthralling faunus had liked her from day one, and the two had always been affectionate toward each other. Yang had never made a move because she thought she had to protect Ruby. Of course, now she knew it was less she couldn’t date someone who would distract her from Ruby, but Ruby was the one she wanted to date.

And Yang’s inner voice had stayed since the kiss. It called itself her innermost desires, and Yang was included to believe it. It was there to tell her when to throw herself onto her sister, when to kiss and embrace and completely lavish her with the dragon’s touch. When to catch the snowy heiress from behind and wrap her strong arms around that tight and inviting waist, to leave warm wet kisses all along the slightly frosty flesh of her neck. And of course, when to forcibly close the pages of the faunus’s tome and invade her silent space with deep and passionate kisses, lingering all the way to the bed, even if the dragon started kissing her onyx haired girlfriend at the cafeteria.

She was very thankful for the mostly empty school during summer vacation.

Blake had become much more open. Relaxed. Happier. And it showed through the almost ever present smile that adorned her lovely face. There was actual colour in her cheeks.

They had all become happier, in fact. There was something about being not just surrounded by sex, but love that had opened their hearts. 

Weiss had told them just exactly why she was so adamant about avoiding her father’s phone calls, and that had nearly caused Yang to find the old man and deliver a few choice words directly into his face. Those words being ‘My’, ‘Fucking’, and ‘Fist.’

Blake had told them last night about her only other previous partner, lover, and boyfriend. Her superior officer and fellow student of the White Fang, Adam Taurus.

She didn’t speak that much.

She didn’t need to.

The tears and white knuckles had done that for her. Yang didn’t feel anger, however, just sadness, and a compulsion to warm her with a burst of sun filled aura and passionate love. It was Yang’s nightly routine when her, no, their Blakey was trembling or shaking in her sleep, haunted by the memory and trauma of her abusive once boyfriend. Having the sun dragon, the little leader, and the snow white heiress all holding her close, it made it all worth it for the faunus. The White Fang, Adam, the fighting and stealing. And, of course, she adored having them all in close proximity to her. Ruby and Weiss felt the same way of course, considering all three surrounded the previously abused feline in a warm and caring hug, drying her tears and lovingly lulling her off to sleep.

Currently, Ruby had said that while none of them had gotten enough sleep in the previous nights, she would stay in the room to look after Blake when she would wake up, and miss breakfast while Yang and Weiss would go to get something to eat. The ladybugs would meet up with them later, don’t worry, Ruby said.

This had led to Yang and Weiss in the cafeteria, Weiss with her head in sun dragon’s lap, and asleep after having a larger than average breakfast, as the girls often did in their loved up haze and air of no longer caring about keeping up false facades. They all loved each other, why would poise and terribly acted posture matter? Since it was summer, students would stay in the school and do some optional extra credit assignments, or head home. 

Blake didn’t have one, Weiss didn’t consider her’s a home, and while Yang and Ruby would be more than happy to head home, they had three reasons not to.

One; there’s no way that they were leaving their two girlfriends at Beacon while they headed home to be with their father.

Two; since Tai was a teacher, he had the summer off. This meant he was constantly on hunts and maybe would see the girls twice the entire summer, and while Patch was small, Vale was big. There was always something to do, not to mention the kitchen still ran full staff all summer, so that meant free food instead of being a drain on their father’s finances.

Three; they didn’t want to have to explain to their father why he had walked in on them with an heiress between Ruby’s legs, the onyx hair of Blake behind Yang’s golden locks, all while her plump lips were around her own sister’s. There would be a time where this would inevitably happen, but for the meanwhile the girls would try their best avoid the negative awkwardness, even though Taiyang Xiao Long would be completely understanding regardless. He loved his daughters more than anything in the world, That included if they were queer and polyamorous.

Admittedly, that hadn’t happened yet, but Yang could dream.

So, there she was, sitting in the cool cafeteria, with her beautiful, snow white girlfriend lightly breathing with her head in the warm lap of the living ray of sunshine while her little red reaper and the shadowcat she so loved were no doubt asleep in their dorm room, nestled like cherubs under the sheets in the other’s warm embrace. 

And in front of her was a very excited Nora Valkyrie and a very bashful and deeply blushing Pyrrha Nikos. Yang had to admit that they were both looking exquisite in the summer sun and air. Nora in her usual pink to match her blush and bubbly face, while the Invincible Girl was reserved, and therefore looking completely flawless and stunning to all. 

“Yang, we both have confessions to make.” Nora blurted out to the blond as the silver haired and blue eyes sleepy heiress slept in her lap even over all the commotion of the breakfast hall. It was amazing how utterly she slept, especially with Nora’s loud voice in such a close radius. 

“What do you mean? What aren’t you telling me?” The blonde brawler asked, trying to keep her voice down for the sake of her ice princess. She was genuinely confused and still wondering why Nora of all people, and Pyrrha for that matter, would have something to confess to her. 

The small ginger huffed, taking a breath before divulging everything. 

“I have a crush on Weiss. And maybe you. And Ruby. Pyrrha has had a crush on Ruby, you, Blake and Weiss ever since we all arrived at Beacon. Well, maybe since she saw you all fight the Nevermore in the Emerald Forest.” Nora blurted out, her nervousness and anxiety at the confession stopping her normally hyperactive and speedy way of speaking.

Pyrrha herself was looking awkward and bashful and exceptionally. “What we’re trying to ask, is that we tell all the girls, and that maybe we can try to be incorporated into your relationship.”

Yang thought she would be panicked. Afraid. Shocked. But she wasn’t. She just looked down at the little Schnee in her lap as she turned onto her right side and burrowed into Yang’s stomach. The buxom blonde took her left hand from the table, and began stroking the snow white hair with her organic hand. The other was drumming it’s metallic fingers on the hard, wooden table. It was obviously artificial, but it was also the one Yang was most comfortable with. It had combat capabilities, and looked like a mixture of her yellow and black motor bike, Bumblebee, and a prosthetic. Weiss had said she had some ideas for a new arm, but Yang wasn’t getting too hopeful.

“How did you guys know?” Yang responded without looking up. There was no way that they could have known the four girls were in one large web of polyamory. They hadn’t told anyone at all around the campus, not even Ruby when wanted to shout it from the rooftops in victory. She had fireworks prepared and everything.

“Well, you could say we knew before you did. We saw how you all stared at each other.” Pyrrha said as she sighed, in her usual elegant and noble way.

“And us.” Nora interjected with a smirk. Yang looked up when she saw Pyrrha let out a light giggle at the comment. Although as funny as the little leg breaker was being, she was still perfectly right, especially about Weiss ‘noticing’ the ginger while Yang and Ruby looked at the Invincible Girl in ways they thought they maybe shouldn't have at the gym. But how could they not? How could Yang currently not stare at Pyrrha Nikos in her flawless summer form, embossed and laced with red and gold? 

Pyrrha blushed even harder. It was starting to get harder to tell where her skin ended and her hair started, Yang thought before looking back down, trying not to stare at the beautiful woman too much. 

“And we also might have been eavesdropping that night of your confession.” Yang froze. “I suppose I should say that, for the sake of coming clean...” the redhead again divulged, a little ashamed that she and Nora had eavesdropped that night, on such a private and earth shaking event for the girls on the team. 

There came a stir in the blond’s lap, a nuzzling and then a lack of pressure or icy aura. Once the sun dragon looked up, Nora and Pyrrha quickly grasped each other’s hands. Fear overtook them as Crimson burned in their vision.

“Yang, are you alright?” Weiss asked in a slow and groggy voice. The ice princess was a complete mess without her sleep, but of course Nora’s seafoam eyes widened and began to swoon at the sight of the young heiress. She had it bad for Weiss above the others. 

“Yeah, Snow Angel, I feel fine. Why?” The caring and loving blond responded, moving a flick of loose silver hair out of her girlfriend’s face.

“Because your eyes are currently blood red.” 

Yang yawned lightly, not enough time to cover her mouth however so chuckled a little after closing it. “Well, none of us got enough sleep last night.” she informed her loving girlfriend.

Weiss sat up a little, yawning herself and reaching in her bag under the table for her compact mirror. Quickly she flicked it open and held it up like a child to her blond’s face, showing her the redness of her pupils. “Not what I meant, darling.”

Looking into it, Yang quickly understood what her lovable heiress was talking about. The dragon’s irises were as red as they were the night that Roman attacked them in the mech suit. 

“I don’t understand.” Yang replied calmly, suddenly questioning why her eyes were acting up and not following her emotions in her own haze of mild exhaustion from the previous night.

“I woke up because it felt I was laying on a pillow that had suddenly been placed on top of a radiator. Now, is something wrong?” Weiss asked again.

Yang looked at her. She should’ve been angry. She should’ve flown into a rage at the fact that these two redheads in front of her had trespassed on their privacy, and could’ve possibly told people about how she and Ruby really felt for each other, or, for that matter, the full details about the four way relationship. That was what her body prepared for, like a conditioned response.

But it just didn’t come. The fire didn’t ignite.

She realized her aura infused right arm had begun to actually crack and pound through the table due to her taps.

No, the fire had ignited. It just didn’t need to burn as hot.

Maybe your love is taking up so much space, negative emotions don’t have room to run wild.

That was another advantage that had come about from being surrounded by such love and blissful euphoria for a week. Being cared for and teased by the lovable and adorable rose with the developing body, the mysterious and utterly beautiful faunus and the almost angelic heiress that was often wanting to hold the dragon tightly in the night and the morning. It all made Yang Xiao Long calmer in her soul and prevented her semblance from flaring up over the smallest thing. 

“They know. About us. All four of us, Weiss” she told her sleepy snow white. 

She didn’t even need to look at the heiress before wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her in. Fear and anxiety were coming off of her pale body in waves, her icy aura clashing with Yang’s warmth, before it finally settled into a thermic equilibrium.

“How?”

“They were listening in a week ago.”

Nora could’ve sworn that she felt the moisture in her nose freeze as Weiss shot the most icy glare she could have at the two of them.

Although, icy was not a cold enough word to use to describe the frosty tone in Weiss Schnee’s eyes. It was as if a blizzard had blown in behind her pupils.

As Nora tried breathing warm air up her nose to remove the unpleasant sensation, Pyrrha went for full damage control, which she had learned from Ren when she had officially become friends with Nora. However, naturally, Pyrrha Nikos was always warm and loving. 

“Listen, Weiss, Yang, it was not intentional. We were relaxing around our dorm, admittedly we could hear the development in yours and our curiosity took hold,” the lavish redhead explained calmly and flawlessly, polar opposite to how Nora had confessed, with ample breathing and a poised demeanour. 

“We may have been in our jammies too.” Nora added with a smile directed at the heiress.

Subconsciously, both Yang and Weiss became flushed at this thought. Yes, Pyrrha was tall, and beautiful, and graceful enough to put Weiss to shame, and near perfect in every way, but it was her imperfect moments that attracted her to them, as well as every time little ginger in pink seemed to take a page out of Yang’s book and let her cockiness and sexuality shine through. 

“So, we heard Weiss say that she bought popsicles, so we got dressed, went to your dorm door, and heard Ruby call a team meeting.” Pyrrha again confessed entirely truthfully. She could never tell a complete lie to anyone. It was simply not in her character.

“You forgot to mention the part where you removed your head from in between my tits.” Nora said with an innocent look on her face.

Yang and Weiss both looked to Pyrrha in surprise as the female warrior shot a furious gaze at the little berserker.

“Wait, what are you two to each other?” Yang eventually stammered out. “Are you dating too?”

Pyrrha seemed to lose herself in thought while Nora happily answered after finishing her bowl of cereal by downing the entire meal in a few gulps, like it was nothing more than a drink.

“We’re sort of together-together, but not really? Like, we’ve gone out on a date or two... but we both agree that we want to be a part of something bigger. Besides, I can’t stop thinking about everyone else too. You know, like you guys, Velvet, Coco...”

“Emerald.” Yang said.

“Glynda.” Weiss said right after.

“Exactly! So, I told Pyrrha about this, and she said she felt the same way about me, but also felt it... what word did you use, Pyrrha-sweets?” Nora asked her Xena, grabbing her hand all more sweetly and tightly, her love and affection for the tall redhead beginning to take hold of her demeanour. 

Pyrrha had her head in her hand again, slightly embarrassed but still holding onto the hand of her little thunder goddess, the closest thing she (currently) had to a girlfriend. She mumbled something inaudible.

“Incomplete! Yeah, Incomplete. It turns out in Mistral, things are a lot looser, and relationships between a lot of people are not only common, but encouraged among warriors. By spending so much time together in such close and intimate contact, the auras become strengthened by each other, improving everyone’s reaction time and general strength!” Nora stood with one foot on the seat, one on the table, flexing her arms into a classic strongman pose. Thankfully, there were only a few other people in the cafeteria at the time, and most of the conversation was too quiet to hear.

It may have been a difficult conversation to piece together, for anyone other than Velvet Scarlatina a few rows away from the girls.

She had been doing exactly what the redheads had, eavesdropping on the entire story as it developed, whispering the sugary details to her own girlfriend in the brown and fashionable high end attire, noting how attractive the sun dragon, heiress, leg breaker and hoplite were looking in their summer clothes and beautiful morning light. Indeed both Coco and Velvet both admired many other men and women from afar, and were intrigued to see the possibility of polyamory in their school. 

“So, we entered into a sort of loose relationship with each other, waiting for the possibility to enter the relationship we both wanted.” Nora fully explained, an adorable smile on her face, a really toothy grin showing the whiteness of her lovely little mouth before she stuffed another whole pancake in it, chewing as she looked to her redheaded partner.

Pyrrha finally lifted her head and readdressed the stunned, but interested, girls. She felt pride at her almost partner. They both wanted this dearly. These were girls they had felt connections with. Attraction to. Fought side by side with while their backs against the wall. This had to go right.

“So, as I was saying, Nora and I got dressed, went to your door, and heard Ruby call a team meeting. We didn’t want to interrupt, so we sat at your door and listened for when you were wrapping up. Instead, we heard all of your confessions.”

“You heard what?!” Said a newly arrived and now deeply shocked Ruby Rose. Behind her, dressed not in her traditional clothes, but instead an outfit that matched Ruby’s, was a very pale and wide eyed Blake Belladonna in a t-shirt and shorts, confirming for both Yang and Weiss that wardrobe changes had to be made. Without realizing, Weiss had already opened up her online shopping app on her scroll.

“That you’re all in love with each other and dating! And we want in!” Nora replied matching the little rose for her vigour and volume. 

Coco struggled to contain her laughter on the far side of the cafeteria. Velvet mentioned that not only with the majority of classmates gone, blackmail would not nearly have the impact it once did, but if Nora entered into the relationship, one of the only people in school stronger than Coco, their legs might be at risk. Coco suddenly stopped laughing at the previously unrealized possibility.

Blake sighed, and sat next to Weiss, on her right side. In an effort to regain symmetry, Ruby decided to sit on Pyrrha’s left, and Yang took note of just how Pyrrha’s own aura suddenly kicked in when she was within proximity of the little red. 

Little Rubles was the girl Pyrrha felt the strongest for of course, on the same level if not more so than Nora. It was the way her deep, emerald eyes dilated and began to swirl whenever they gazed upon the crimson and black cloak and the silver in her warm and inviting eyes. 

Everyone in the room could tell that Pyrrha was warmly pining for Ruby. And at the way the young and growing leader innocently shuffled closer to rub against the arm of the Invincible Girl, it told them all that she felt the exact same way.

“Wait. So, you’ve known since day one, and you’re just coming to us with this now?” Blake asked, paranoia evident on her face.

“Well, yeah! It’s all well and fine to want to get in on it from the get-go, but we didn’t actually know just how well the relationship would go. If I’m being honest here, and I always am, I’d rather Pyrrha and I stay out of a bad relationship than get involved and trying to fix something that’s going to stay broken anyway. So, we’ve been watching, listening, keeping tabs, basically. And... you guys are happy. Really happy. And... well... we weren’t just listening the first night, actually.”

Both Weiss and Blake began to feel anxiety in the pit of their stomachs at the last sentence.

“We know what you guys talked about last night. And a few nights before that. Blake. Weiss.”

They all froze. 

“Trust me, it took Pyrrha holding me back to not burst in there and give both of you lil cuties every bit of love the both of you deserve.” Nora nearly burst, shaking her fists close to her bust as emerald eyes and silver continued to stare deeply into each other, with the taller redhead donning a small and quite adorable smile, with the smaller girl of course reciprocating.

The monochrome pair realize that Nora’s seafoam eyes were welling up with tears. 

“I made Pyrrha promise that today would be the day. That we would both tell all four of you that we have feelings and attractions for you,” Nora started again, taking the reigns once more because of Pyrrha’s distracted awkwardness about a confession of emotional and physical attraction, despite conveying exactly that through her thoughts to the huntress with silver. “I don’t want to miss out on giving you the love and comfort you all deserve, ever again.” the ginger finished, looking at the heiress and the faunus. 

She wiped her eyes clean with the back of her hand, before looking up with closed eyes and smiling, but all of the girls, including Pyrrha could tell that the grin had a sad aftertaste to it.

“Not to mention we all have sad days too. I don’t want to miss out on getting some happiness to counteract it too” Nora slightly giggled, bringing the tone back to her usual bubbliness with a refreshing smile and her seafoam eyes coming back with gleeful bliss. “Look, I don’t exactly have a home to go back to during the summer, just like Ren. Jaune’s staying, but I’m not sure why. Something to do with Ozpin. And Pyrrha? Wait, Pyrrha, tell them.”

Pyrrha glanced at all of them, snapping her vision away from the deep and warming void of Ruby’s silver eyes. Now she was looking at silver and lilac, and yellow and ice blue and then seafoam. She sighed. 

All seven hearts in the room felt a growing warmth at seeing or hearing the true Pyrrha Nikos. The one that ordered olives and other unusual toppings on her pizza, only to then gag on celery. The one that found political humor irresistible and when she danced in her room, she would purse her lips and move her arms in little circles while leaning left and right. The one that would always belt out the lyrics to all her favorite musical numbers when she watched them alone, because she would never force anyone to sit through her making a slight fool of herself. The Pyrrha Nikos that laughed her completely unbearable, square laugh that she herself could not stand, but the laugh that everyone else fell in love with. Even Jaune at a time in their first year.

The Pyrrha Nikos that was the real and unfiltered Pyrrha Nikos.

“I’m staying in Vale for the summer because there is not that much for me at home, to be honest. It would be nice to see Mother and Father, but we wouldn’t do much besides more training.”

Something about the lower notes in Pyrrha’s tone reminded Weiss of her childhood, and how she was raised to be a huntress, obsessively in fact, when speaking about her father.

“And plus, all of my friends, my only friends, are here.” Her smile’s undertones matched Nora’s from earlier. “Why would I ever want to leave?”

“Just friends, eh?” The other five girls turned and looked at Yang, who had her signature cocky grin. There was certainly a flame between her legs and in her heart for the indomitable huntress. And the rest of the girls would be lying if they said they didn’t find her incredibly attractive, both in body and soul. 

Yang continued her riddle of teasing with a cocky smirk and a raised eyebrow, all the while holding her ice princess. “Well, if we’re just going to be friends…”

“Excuse us, we’ll be right back” Ruby quickly interrupted her sister and dragged her girls off for a rapid meeting around the table as Nora wrapped her arms around her girlfriend, giving Pyrrha a light pat on the arm before moving farther away down the table to chat with her own team in private.

“Are we really considering adding two more people into this? Whatever this is?” Ruby asked.

“Yes.” All of her current girlfriends said in unison. There could be no question, not now. All four of the were attracted to the gladiator and all of them found Nora almost undeniably cute. They were all more than willing to add the pair into the mix, for for them, it could only mean more love. 

Ruby wasn’t disagreeing. She wanted to be with Pyrrha and Nora too, just like they all did. She also didn’t want to make an irreversible mistake however.

“Alright. I agree with you, but we have to figure out why. Why do we want them to be with us, and not just based on physical attraction.” Ruby steepled her fingers, and looked across at the three girls in front of her, giving her best headmaster impression.

“I... I can feel myself in Nora” Blake said, gazing earnestly at Ruby. “She has a past she doesn’t want to go back to. No home, no life. She wants to start anew, and she already has, here. I want to add to that new life” the faunus smiled, while also thinking about all the sweet noises she could see herself extracting from the flawless redhead. Which the other three were also thinking about. 

“I feel the same way about Pyrrha.” Weiss said sternly. “She’s not telling us everything. I can hear my words in hers, describing my parents without trying to lie by omitting the truth. I want to help her.”

“They both need love, Ruby. Just like the four of us do.” Yang said, with a serious face, before her smile came back. “And everyone knows you’ve had a crush on Pyrrha since you met her, don’t deny it” the dragon giggled, nudging her little sister slightly. “We all know what you’d do to her and let her do to you in the night.”

“Yang, I told you that was a secret!”

Ruby smiled at the thought. She felt like she should have felt embarrassed or at least defensive of the fact, but she wasn’t. She was happy of the thought of having Pyrrha and Nora join them. And even more so of the thought of having the chance to finally snuggle with her favourite redhead, and even more. 

“Ok. Let’s go spread the good news.”

When Nora pushed the beds together, it had surprised all of the girls that they hadn’t thought of doing that before. They knew they could fit three to a bed, but what they had done for the past week was just sleep two to a bed, constantly switching partners. They all honestly felt a tad embarrassed for not thinking of the idea before. Now things could and would only get better in every respect.

Ruby was in her rose pattern pajama pants and grim heart tank top, the sleep mask absent that night and her silver eyes still distracting Pyrrha completely. She just wanted to wrap the little leader in her own strong arms and hold her close all night. And of course Ruby was only thinking the same as she saw the warm emeralds in the low light of the evening, wanting to spoon the redhead and kiss her all night long. In fact she wanted to kiss all her girlfriends, but Pyrrha was drawing her in more than ever. 

Yang wore her tanktop and black short combo, loving as alluring and intoxicating for the other five girls to look at. Her toned thighs, looking good enough to sink one’s teeth into on their trail to the rose between her legs. Her chiseled abdomen that would always attract her sister’s trembling palms and Blake’s teeth. And of course her voluptuous bust that had all the eyes admiring. 

Blake wore her yukata, looking mysterious and therefore as darkly beautiful as ever. And Weiss her nightgown, Nora her matching black and pink ‘boop’ shirt and pink boyshorts, and Pyrrha...

Beautiful, lovely Pyrrha. She was wearing an overly large, blood orange t-shirt that hung down past her knees, and nothing else.

The other five girl’s hearts were all beating as one, brimming and nearly overflowing with love and adoration. Not for the facade of the Invincible Girl, but for the girl standing in front of them. Not what she represented, but for who she really was.

There was a small drabble of discussion, but eventually they came to the following order in which to sleep; Blake, Yang, Nora, Weiss, Ruby, Pyrrha, from left to right in the cozy and loving looking bed. 

As soon as the lights went out, Blake curled with and held Yang, her sun dragon and partner, the closest girl she had. Nora grabbed Weiss, shoved her into her ample cleavage and passed out rather quickly, but the heiress was hardly phased at all, Nora’s soft breasts were heavenly to feel and her electrifying warmth was extremely welcome to the rather frosty heiress. And Ruby wrapped her arms around Pyrrha’s waist, and her legs around her right leg, and kept her eyes wide open to look into the emerald orbs of her fellow spoon. 

There were no words between the redhead and the little leader; none were needed between Ruby and Pyrrha, who both had mouths open and were already heavily breathing as the rest of the girls were assumedly falling softly asleep. Of course that was not the case with Blake and Yang, but all silver eyes were concerned with was the emerald ones looking directly back with but two words behind them. The same words inside Ruby’s own mind. 

Kiss me. 

Pyrrha did exactly that. 

Her hands were positioned perfecting in Ruby’s short bob of dark and crimson tipped hair, and the other at her rather curvy waist. Pyrrha herself was at her own mercy as her lips took on volition of their own and made a move for Ruby’s, which also closed the gap. 

Their lips met and collided in a mild explosion of lust and insatiable impatience, Ruby needed to taste Pyrrha’s lips, to quickly feel the texture of them and enjoy them after pining for them for the best part of a year, silently. Now was her chance to fully explore the sweet corners and curves and flesh of the perfect woman’s mouth and lips. And Ruby was already completely intoxicated and mesmerised by the taste and feel of Pyrrha’s soft lips against her own.

Of course, the sensation to Pyrrha, was deeper, and completely euphoric. It was in the way Ruby tasted, predictably of strawberries, and how she felt in Pyrrha’s hands, even how the little leader was breathing, and how she smelt. The scent of cookies and berries again filled Pyrrha’s nostrils and made the kissing all the more pleasurable and surreal. 

She could not believe that she was finally indulging her fantasies, and kissing the adorable huntress.

It was pure passion. Fingers dived and ran through long curls of bright red and dark crimson as legs curled around each other and toes shivered with ecstasy as well as fingers and even lips when the two finally broke apart for a split second of breath. Not Ruby nor Pyrrha could bare to stop kissing. Their bodies were connected in such a deep and vortic way, it was as if the flesh on their arms was vibrating. And then both had deeper and more lustful thoughts about the other. 

They could already hear Yang and Blake descend into such contact, the faunus purring as Yang worked her sublime magic under the sheets. 

As Ruby looked at the moistened lips of her Invincible Girl, and as Pyrrha looked at the innocent and desiring silver swirls of irises, both knew what they wanted to do to the other, after silently pining for each other for months and months they were finally in each other’s arms and surrounded by more love than they could have ever hoped for. They both just wanted one chance to truly feel the other. 

“Pyrrha” Ruby whispered before kissing her new girlfriend softly on her cheek. 

“Oh dust, Ruby” Pyrrha responded in the same level of whisper. 

Their lips met again, parting to allow easy access for the little rose to fully explore Pyrrha’s mouth with her little enthusiastic tongue, getting the full experience and overwhelming taste. And then came the texture of Pyrrha’s own tongue, and it gave Ruby the nudge of courage she needed to devote herself. 

Ruby could feel her hands slide down the perfect curve of Pyrrha’s arched and covered spine to find the firm and pillowy flesh of her almost uncovered rear. It was unlike any other that the little huntress had felt, certainly not the same as Yang’s or Weiss’s. It was really quite firm, but also soft, the perfect amount of cushiony softness for an ass, and the fact that it belonged to the tall and exquisite hoplite, made it all the more luxurious to grip gently.

There came a slight gasp from the Invincible Girl, but not before her own hand had diverted from holding onto Ruby’s waist. It was finding its own path as Ruby’s was also, both heading in similar directions as their lips continued to enfold over each other’s in a haze and mess of passion and loved up lust. 

Before long, Pyrrha could feel her heart rate rise as she found the palm of her left hand was tracing the covered inside of Ruby’s right thigh. As too was Ruby’s hand about to dive under the loose and flowing fabric of Pyrrha’s long bed shirt but they soon broke off their bout of kissing one final time, with inquiries of consent in both of their eyes. 

“Pyrrha…” Ruby whispered in her innocence, making the Invincible Girl all the more twisted between her gorgeous thighs. “Do you--”

“Yes Ruby.” the taller redhead quickly responded before leaning in again for more wet and lustful kisses. 

‘Oh good dust, would they simply fuck and stop debating?’ Weiss thought from her heavenly position between Nora’s breasts as the ginger stirred a little. As soon as seafoam eyes opened their lips collided too, silencing all thought or voice in the large bed as the girls all became embroiled in sweet caressing and sensual contact. 

At the same time, Ruby’s hand travelled upward a little and forward, to meet the parted and practically dripping folds of Pyrrha’s silk, the sweet and sublime texture meeting the little rose’s slightly trembling fingers. Meanwhile, Pyrrha swallowed her reservations and went for what she wanted, sending her hand diving into Ruby’s pajama pants and meeting her own wet folds, finding the open entrance already laying in wait for the beautiful redhead. 

Two fingers from each women entered the other’s folds and both parted lips to let out a wet and breathy moan, followed by a slight giggle. They were mirroring each other, both whipping their heads back as they let out their first moans with breath, coming back to put their foreheads together as the fingers came back, and then in again and again, slowly forming a sensual rhythm with which to fuck with. 

To Pyrrha, mixed in with the smells and scents and tastes from her smaller lover, it was if the entire process, the release already coming from the space between her legs, it was downright hallucinogenic. Like some perfect drug was coursing through her, coming from the rhythm and loving pumping of Ruby’s fingers in and out of her silk, her release gently seeping out and dripping into the sheets and over Ruby’s hand. 

And to Ruby, as Pyrrha gently increased the rate at which her fingers were entering and exiting, of course her breathing hitched all the more, which caused Pyrrha to fish for more and more intense kisses as she continued to fuck the rose with her fingers. 

They were both becoming completely in sync and matched up. It was one of the best times Ruby had engaged with another girl sexually. However, despite how sensual and euphoric Pyrrha’s body and touch was to the little rose. It could not beat how Yang made her feel. 

Magnetism could still not beat the dragon. 

The dragon herself, was also relishing the time the six girls were having in the bed together. She was holding her faunus closely from behind, her lips around a soft area of flesh at Blake’s neck. It was Yang marking her again with a gentle bite on the rear of her faunus’s neck. All while her index and middle finger were almost rapidly pumping in and out of the dripping folds between Blake’s legs, and at the pace Yang was setting, Blake was at her complete mercy as the sparks and shock flew throughout her entire body.

Blake was amazed that she had held on for the minutes that she had with Yang almost furiously stuffing her fingers into her her silk, combined with the lusty and loving, breathy moans of Ruby and Pyrrha behind her. And she could tell it was the sound of her sister receiving pleasure that was driving the dragon to make her faunus cum so quickly. 

How Nora was not completely awake was a mystery to all. 

“Oh Pyrrha.”

“Dust. Ruby.”

The pair were still breathing heavily, foreheads resting against each other as their fingers continued to pump in and out. Little Ruby was rocking her hips forward, meeting Pyrrha’s fingers and taking them in all the deeper while leaning in for more wet kisses, all the while thrusting her own fingers, three of them now, into Pyrrha’s dripping and sensational wet folds. 

Ruby was a little more experienced with pleasuring another girl, only slightly more than her taller and beautiful lover, but still the effort that Pyrrha was matching the little leader with as both edged closer and closer to orgasm, both in the other’s hand. 

The breathing was rather audible, and hitched and completely void of all relaxation and filled with the same lustful exhaustion as was happening down below as each inserted another finger. It was such a euphoric haze that had fallen over the pair of them, Ruby running her fingers through the crown and back of Pyrrha’s luscious red curls and the Invincible Girl holding the back of her lover’s neck as they kissed again and stopped, however holding their lips close together as they breathed heavily in unison. 

“I’ve wanted to hold you for so long Ruby” the flushed redhead barely managed to edge out. She was so thankful and still in mild disbelief that she could at last call the little beauty her girlfriend. It was magical, and a magical night indeed as she could feel the faunus purring in the arms of the sun dragon, and the heiress and the leg breaker quietly canoodling. 

Little Ruby didn’t respond, instead she simply pressed her strawberry lips against Pyrrha’s and kissed her all the more deeply, while at the same time, using all the experience Yang had given her, and pressing her thumb against the redhead’s throbbing clit, rolling little circles around it. 

The sensation sent furious sparks throughout Pyrrha’s core and brought her fully to and over the edge once the right hand made its way up the long shirt and to the uncovered left breast of the beautiful huntress. Taking the hard nipple between her index and thumb was enough for Ruby to make her new lover relent, and cum completely into the reaper’s hand.

At the same time, as Pyrrha Nikos knew she was about to release herself to the little leader, the Invincible Girl increased her rate of pumping all the more, making Ruby’s quiet pitch of moaning heightened as she lavished Pyrrha with kisses. 

To match their magical and euphoric air in the bed both Ruby and Pyrrha came at the same time, their sweet juices seeping into the other’s hand as their inner walls spasmed and convulsed around fingers. 

Both had a glorious orgasm with the other, melting into their embrace and Pyrrha giggling slightly as she kissed her Ruby again and again, fully wrapping her little lover in her strong arms. 

“What’s so funny Pyrrha?”

“Not funny. I’m just so happy to finally have you all with me, to express my love and feel a little like I’m home,” the redhead huntress giggled as she nuzzled her head into Ruby’s chest. “I feel so at home with all of you.”

Blake was also finished, and look back at her sun dragon who was holding her waist, legs intertwined and hands held. They were as loved up as the two redheads behind them and Yang leaned over to her sister and Pyrrha, giving both a quick but meaningful and passionate kiss. It was different, kissing Pyrrha, but more than welcome, feeling her slight ember pass through the dragon. 

Then Yang kissed her faunus again, deep and full of warm and loving passion like Blake was hers after just bringing her orgasm alongside her sister and the Invincible Girl.

While Nora and the heiress had not been engaged sexually, they had spent the past minutes simply laying in each other’s hold, kissing and completely falling in love, as Pyrrha and Ruby had. All six of them were falling in love for that matter, maybe not all fully, not yet, but it was certainly magical for them all to be in the same bed and now in the same relationship. 

And as the rest slowly lulled themselves to sleep in each other’s arms, gently blending so that they were all holding one another in a large cuddle puddle, Ruby looked over to Yang and Blake, to Nora and Weiss and then to her new lover Pyrrha, and felt like the luckiest girl in the world. 

Only she still didn’t know how much her luck would improve. 

Not as Velvet and Coco hatched an idea of their own in their own dorm room, wonder and interest on the face of the fashionista, and worry on the face of the velveteen rabbit. 

“So uh... At least the belt is fashionable, right? I mean, I have seven sisters, so I sort of get what is and isn’t in style, and the keyhole thing is super in right now, I think.”

Cinder was in hell.

She was also in an elevator, but that elevator was currently in hell and delivering her from one hell to a different circle of it.

“And this isn’t going to be bad, I swear. I’m a good team leader. At least Pyrrha tells me. Well, she did before she moved in with Team RWBY. They’re our neighbors, like across the hall, not next door. Man, we have some catching up to do, you and me. Well, not catching up. More like introductions, right?”

In the past ten minutes, she had gone from being one of Remnant’s most powerful beings to, well, something else entirely.

“Oh, maybe we can play a meeting game with that roommate of yours, what was it? Merc, something. Mercury! We can play a ‘get-to-know-each-other’ game with Mercury.”

She had become a blonde toy soldier’s pet, and Ozpin’s personal project.

She held up a hand and tried to warm it, succeeding, but before it could get any where near injury inducing heat, she felt the small vibrations of the belt begin to activate, forcing her to let loose an unintentional and near panic inducing giggle before she deactivated her aura, finding a small chill in the late summer evening air as she exited the lobby, trailing behind the pale knight.

The belt. She had never been tickled, or ticklish in general, but the feeling of that belt. If felt like something was invading her body, taking control of her limbs away, squeezing the strength and breathe from her body, all the while commanding her to laugh. It was one of the worst experiences of her life.

She had been beaten. Defeated. So unexpectedly, and so easily.

“We should pick up dinner first! What do you feel like eating?”

Cinder looked up from her sulking to see a bright eyed smile glaring in her face. She wished to do nothing more than place her hand on the handsome face and leave a scar in the shape of a handprint, but the most she could do now was make her hand barely as hot as a hot water bottle.

Seconds passed in silence.

Jaune spun around, pointed a finger to the sky, and bellowed.

“Barbeque Chicken Pizza it is!”

She hated barbeque chicken. And she was never a fan of pizza. 

Cinder Fall was in hell.

Little did she know that she had been in hell her entire life, and Ozpin, much like a tyrant in a different world unlike theirs, had offered her an angel to get her out.


	5. I Believe In A Thing Called Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The origins of how Cinder, Jaune and Mercury all came together fully into one relationship. cinder is in a mental hell and a very real prison at the hands of Ozpin with Jaune as the only thing standing between the Headmaster simply killing her. Now Cinder must live like a normal woman, with all the emotions and messy self hate that comes with what she had done before. She thinks of Emerald and how much better her life must be compared to Cinder's own and Mercury's who is also in hell because of her mistakes. Only Cinder suddenly feels herself falling for Jaune, and the two grow ever closer as the weeks unfold. Roman Torchwick makes an unexpected ally in prison.

Foreword by Headmaster Ozpin of Beacon Academy.

“Salem. Were we ever friends? Allies? More? It has been so long since this feud began, I cannot even recall. However, I may have started my final moves to put you into checkmate, my dear. As someone who holds himself in such high regard, I cannot help but lament my lack of logic up until this point. What could possibly defeat creatures created, strengthened, and attracted to negative emotions like fear, grief, sadness, and rage? Even now, the answer is so obvious.

This is the end of your reign of terror, Salem. And I will achieve victory without ever firing a shot. But so much had to be sacrificed to get to this point. Childhoods, limbs, lives. To form the perfect constant stream of love and affection to drive your Grimm, and you, out of existence.

This is the beginning of the end, Salem. And I can’t wait to watch you fade.”

From my desk to yours,

Headmaster Ozpin of Beacon Academy.

“So uh... At least the belt’s fashionable, right? I mean, I have seven sisters, so I sort of get what is and isn’t in style, and the keyhole thing is super in right now, I think,” the slightly embarrassed blonde was babbling, trying to make his victimised, raven haired and amber eyed companion a little more comfortable about her, their, present situation.

Cinder was in hell.

“And this isn’t going to be bad, I swear. I’m a good team leader, at least that’s what Pyrrha tells me. Well, she did before she moved in with Team RWBY. They’re our neighbors, like across the hall, not next door. Man, we have some catching up to do, you and me. Well, not catching up. More like introductions, right?” Jaune continued to babble, thinking himself a fool, an awkward fool. In truth he was still very much the same man who had faked his way into this academy, still very much the same man who had no semblance or aura to speak of, that is until Pyrrha Nikos had unlocked it for him in the Emerald Forest. 

Even as he was entering his second year of studies at Beacon, Jaune still hadn’t found his semblance.

But that hardly mattered to him at that moment in time. He had been tasked with one of the most complex assignments imaginable, but he was committed already, having almost connected with the woman in his care. There was already an ember there, deep inside them both and it had been there since the blonde had found the half maiden in her sea of self pity, close to the end of her burning rope. 

In the past ten minutes, Cinder Fall had gone from being one of Remnant’s most powerful beings to... something else entirely.

“Oh, maybe we can play a meeting game with that roommate of yours, what was it? Merc, something. Mercury! We can play a ‘get-to-know-each-other’ game with Mercury.”

She had become a blonde toy soldier’s pet, and Ozpin’s personal project. And she was simply seething as he waffled on about things that didn’t matter to her, as she was a heated mixture of fury and depression.

Cinder held up her right hand, the hand closest to Jaune, and tried to warm it, succeeding slightly. Before it could get any where near injury inducing heat, however, she felt the small vibrations of the belt begin to activate, forcing her to let loose an unintentional and near panic inducing giggle before she deactivated her aura. How demoralising, embarrassing and infuriating. She found a small chill in the late summer evening air as the pair exited into the lobby, with the pale knight trailing behind in his usual awkwardness. He was even still mumbling to himself and trying to make the best effort he could to endear himself to Cinder, despite not truly caring. 

How could he care for her? No one else ever had.

Then there was the belt. She had never been tickled, or ticklish in general, but the feeling of the belt. It felt like something was invading her body, taking the control of her limbs away from her, squeezing the strength and breath from her body, all the while commanding her to laugh. It was one of the worst experiences of her life.

She had been beaten, defeated. So unexpectedly, and so easily.

Jaune suddenly sparked, his blue eyes slightly popping as an idea sprang in his very eager and caring mind. “We should pick up dinner first! What do you feel like eating?” He asked his companion, stepping to the main door of Ozpin’s benevolent tower. 

Cinder looked up from her sulking to see a bright eyed smile glaring at her in the face, and it was surprisingly pleasant to her eye, but far too patronising to her current pitiful state. She wished to do nothing more than place her hand on the handsome face and leave a scar in the shape of a handprint, but the most she could do now was make her hand barely as lukewarm as a hot water bottle. And it infuriated her all the more.

Seconds passed in silence until Jaune spun around, pointed a finger to the sky, and bellowed. “Barbeque Chicken Pizza it is!” He roared proudly with his prominent smile. 

She hated barbeque chicken. And she was never a fan of pizza.Cinder Fall really was in hell.

Little did she know that she had been in hell her entire life, and Ozpin, much like a tyrant in a different world unlike theirs, had offered her an angel to get her out.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“You guys have such a big room! Why do the guests have such big dorms while we have to cramp together?” Jaune asked, surprised to see the size of the guest dwellings compared to that of his own team’s dorm, even if they were down two girls. It had grown rather strange to be sharing the dorm with just Ren, who was more absent than not. 

The blond was actually quite excited to finally be sharing a room with more than just one silent person, and instead with people who had little choice but to stay and whom he knew fairly little about, even if they could cause him grievous bodily harm with relative ease. 

It was bad enough for Mercury that Cinder had gotten called out of the room and ordered the grey haired cyborg to stay inside in case Emerald had regained her senses and made her way back, but even worse she had told him to keep the lights on, meaning he couldn’t even sleep comfortably.

As Merc lifted the comic book from his face in his lounging position, he spied his slightly older boss with the obsidian black hair and the familiar, but unknown blond boy. He was rather handsome too and Mercury would know of course what a handsome young man looked like, considering he saw it in the mirror every day.

“Ah, you must be Mercury,” the blond expressed, waving as Mercury made his way to the door to greet the pair. “I’m Jaune.” The blonde knight held out his hand, expecting a handshake.

Mercury looked at the hand, then at Jaune, then stood and walked over to Cinder, rather rudely. Jaune didn’t give it a second thought, of course Mercury wouldn’t shake his hand, he was, in some regards, an intruder. Jaune was probably being seen by both of them as the villain. A villain to the villains, what an odd thought to the exhilarated knight.

“So, what’s he doing here? Need some stress relief?” Mercury jabbed slyly to Cinder with a smirk. There would be no other sane reason why she would bring him to their room. 

“Mercury.... It’s over” Cinder sighed.

Mercury had never really paid attention to her emotions before, due to his position and his nature, that and Emerald usually did it for him. And, mostly, because Cinder Fall didn’t seem to have any other emotions than smug confidence. But her words sparked a faucet of thought and speculation within the grey teen. That, and slight dread. 

“Wait, what do you mean, it’s over?” He asked, slightly clutching at the soft fabric of her sleeve, like a frightened child with their mother. 

She took another breath in a huff, releasing the least of her defiant willpower into the ether and submitting, cementing the fact that they had been beaten, their play devastated. “The plan. It’s done. Ozpin knew about it. I’ve been placed in...” 

Cinder took a millisecond to shoot a glare at Jaune who was glancing behind some curtains and completely missing her formerly burning gaze. “His custody. If I try to use any major aura or semblance or… Any of Amber’s powers, this belt;” she informed her former lackey, newly proclaimed friend or companion, grabbing the buckle and shaking it. “The belt will disable me, if not kill me. Same if someone else besides Jaune uses the remote or if he dies.”

Mercury had been listening the entire time with a blank look on his face. “So. What you’re saying is, there’s no reason for me to stay here any more.”

Cinder didn’t know she could feel so surprised, so often. She knew Mercury was never the most loyal of henchmen, but so ready to abandon her at the first moment he knew she couldn’t fight back? Even the woman herself could never attempt to be so cold. Probably. Cinder could murder, lie, cheat and steal more proficiently than Roman or the most dastardly of criminals, learning from the best, but to abandon her supposed friends and benefactors when they were in the position she was in, it was deplorable. 

But Cinder wasn’t really a friend to Mercury, she hadn’t done anything for them that would earn his friendship, the same with Emerald. Even worse with the poor gem. And Cinder was hardly beneficial to him anymore, in the state she was in, watched over by Jaune Arc of all people. 

“Actually. No. Sorry. You’re staying here too” Jaune piped up, turning from the curtains to join the pair casually, trying his best not to stumble or make a fool of himself further to the half maiden or the grey haired Capoeira-user. 

Mercury turned to eye the blond knight while Cinder looked around the bionic boy to take a look at Jaune, his smile goofy as ever. An edgy silence fell over the three for a few seconds as the combined looks from Mercury and the contained Cinder almost threatened Jaune into holding back his explanation.

“See,” Jaune began, rubbing the back of his neck in his sustained awkwardness. “Ozpin was talking to me before you came up, Cinder. Mercury Black, if you leave my service, you will be hunted down and arrested by Atlas Security. And the penalty for such if you’re caught would be… life imprisonment.” the rather useless blond told them feeling slightly guilty about telling the rebellious grey teen. 

Incredulous was the only word for Mercury’s face.

“Life? For what?!” He roared louder than Cinder had ever heard him, and that was saying something. Due to her vulnerable state she slightly jumped at his shout. 

“Conspiring.” was the blonde’s response. 

“That’s not worthy of life in prison!”

“It is when the Headmaster of Beacon Academy and the General of Atlas agree on the sentence for you, Mercury,” Cinder realised. 

For a second, Mercury Black and Cinder Fall shared an emotion. One that was not of smugness or their usual villainous intellect facade. One of complete and utter defeat.

“You’re serious.”

Jaune looked out the window momentarily at the dark wood, before turning back to the half maiden with the baggy amber eyes and the furious mercenary, 

“Deadly” the knight lately stated. 

Cinder perked up slightly and counterintuitively at the thought, and felt heat run through her body at the cocky, nearly malicious statement from her caretaker. Heat that lingered in her very bones, reminding her that was still an element of malice in her.

The truth was she just didn't want Mercury to leave her. She didn't want to be alone with someone whose intentions were currently unknown to her. 

“So, Mercury, Cinder. I am proud to announce that today is the first of your new lives. But, before anything else, there is something that needs to be addressed,” Jaune began to finalise. 

He turned around once more, and leaned against the window sill, channeling an inner movie moment with a faux devilish smile. 

“Dinner,” he put to them with his smile. 

That night, Cinder lay in bed awake. She had spoken up about her preferences; and to her surprise, Jaune was more than willing to order her a Mistralian salad instead while he and Mercury shared a chicken/ranch/bacon pizza, as the only pizzeria that was open so late didn’t have Jaunes preferred choice.

Mercury was asleep. She had slept in the same room as him for nearly six months now, and could recognize when his breathing had become shallow and calm. Jaune, on the other hand, was nearly silent. Every so often, she could pick out a single breath, but could go minutes without hearing it again.

She rubbed her hand against the belt, which was on the outside of her pajamas as she slept to save her skin from any irritation. Another one of the caring knight’s ideas, she thought. He was being so tender and caring to her that it felt more than odd. She wasn’t able to take the belt off, but her dress slid off under it, and it seemed to be waterproof, which she found out during her shower. 

It appeared that Ozpin and Ironwood had thought of everything to prevent her from removing the failsafe. But her furious hate had subsided for the moment, settling into despair and exhaustion as a single tear sprouted from her eye.

The ‘get-to-know-each-other game’ was enjoyable enough, she had to admit. It was simple, and easy. They did it as they broke bread and ate dinner, even though she was silent for most of the game. Cinder did answer one or two questions, like her favorite food, Vacuoan Sashimi, her favorite colour, Forest Green, although she disdained wearing it on her person, maybe with the exception of the correct nightwear she had yet to own, and her favorite sound; wine glass harp music. Questions about subjects like childhood, her ambitions, and her romantic and sexual preferences, she either didn’t want to answer or didn’t have an answer for yet. 

Mercury had been a tad more open, he had answered nearly every question Jaune had asked, including the ones about his father. That had taken Cinder by surprise. What took her more by surprise, however, was the fact that Jaune didn’t seem shocked by any of the responses. He simply took them at face value and rolled on with the next. When the questions really looked as if they had some background effect on his subject, he would offer his arms in a warm embrace and try to comfort Merc or Cinder. 

Just how much did Ozpin, and by extension Jaune, know? How long had they been planning this together? There were still so many questions on her troubled mind. 

Just how long ago was she put into checkmate? Did she ever have a hope of ever winning? Was this a 24 karat run of bad luck, or was this game rigged from the start? 

“Can’t sleep either, huh?” The blonde knight asked her, knowing there was no way she could be asleep after such a stressful and chaotic day.

Cinder turned her head to her left, where Jaune was in the bed next to her, eyes wide and almost a luminous blue in the dark. She could still see him giving a small smile even with no light and, for some reason unknown to her, it actually made her feel the slightest bit warmer inside. 

“Yeah. It’s all a bit disorienting for me” Cinder confirmed, sounding a lot more casual and void of negative feelings aside from the light hint of a dry sadness. Which of course was understandable from Jaune’s perspective. As she she was in a place she still not completely familiar with and near Jaune himself, whom she didn’t know. The game may have clued her into some of his person, but not much at all. She still felt very much alone. 

“Listen. I know you don’t really like me. I can tell,” Jaune stated flatly, if not a little disappointed over the effort he had made during the day to cushion the blow of her terrible situation. He had done his damnedest to make her feel better about being utterly destroyed and depressed, obviously to no or maybe little avail. It was going to take his all to maybe ‘save’ the half maiden, especially after what she had confessed to him about her plan before hand. 

“I can read people pretty well, well, people tell me that. Ozpin told me that,” he continued, looking up at the ceiling in his soliloquy. “But I don’t hate you Cinder, or have any negative feelings towards you, really.”

It was completely earth shattering to Cinder as she looked at him. It was all surreal to her actually, how despite having such a plan to bring down Beacon, Ozpin, and everyone around him, after planning such evil and malicious things, the blond boy charged with her care didn’t hate her. He didn’t even dislike her. As amber eyes looked to his blue, Cinder Fall could tell that he actually did feel some form of positive feeling for her.

“In fact, I’m not sure if Ozpin wanted me to tell you, but my official assignment isn’t to ‘reform you’,” he told her, taking his arms out from under his head to make air quotes before putting them back. “I told myself to care for you, well Ozpin didn’t say so, and I told myself that I was going to care for you and hopefully then you’d change.” he finished, turning to her slightly, his blue eyes so pure and already displaying the care he was devoting to her.

“I know you’re not evil, Cinder. No one is.”

She was completely perplexed, even stunned how he could ever give a damn about her at all. He didn’t know her, not really, only of her and what she was planning to bring about. And yet his eyes told no lies, nor his lips. He genuinely cared for her. But how? Why even?

“I’ll take care of you, Cinder. You won’t have to worry anymore. This is the start of your new life. I promise.”

Silence filled the room. Cinder could give no response to Jaune’s promise, but how could she? There were no words that could express how she felt. It was terrifying, but also lovely, and it even melted a little of the protective ice walling her heart. 

“Good night, Cinder. We’ll get breakfast in the morning from off campus. I want to spend tomorrow talking to you, and the cafeteria might not be the best place for you, right now” he whispered as they both shuffled to turn their backs to each other, Jaune with a mild frown, but Cinder with a slight smile for a second, until her thoughts came back to her. 

There was a reason the cafeteria wouldn’t be the best place. Not because people knew who she was, not all of them at least, just a few. And there was one girl in particular that would destroy the entire dining hall just to take a second to kill Cinder. 

Emerald.

“...Jaune” Cinder whispered from her side, not turning around. Although Jaune himself immediately sprang up, into a sitting position and looking towards her positively shocked. 

“That- I- Yes- Cinder-. That’s the first time you’ve said my name,” he observed, and he was right. She hadn't said his name all day until past midnight on the worst day of her life. 

She shut her eyes, and returned to lay on her back. She could feel sleep coming for her, but she needed to know.

“Do you want to do this?” Cinder asked the blond warden, looking at him with glistening amber eyes, slightly wet with tired tears. 

It took a moment to register in Jaune’s mind but he leaned in a little closer and asked her. “Do what?” Was his response. 

“Take…” Cinder had to take a calming exhale to compose herself. It was Jaune's promise, it had completely taken by surprise and left her in somewhat of a messy state bordering on tears. “Take care of me.”

“Of course” he responded in a flash. 

Her eyes shot open, before her too rising to a seated position to stare at his eyes. At that second, and for the rest of her life, the blue of his eyes that she stared into was the exact color and shade of honesty.

“You replied so quickly,” she noted, as if it were a crime or something so unnatural to see from a companion. Cinder was in no way used to or even ready for Jaune's rapid response. 

“I did.”

“...Why?”

“Why did I respond so quickly, or why do I want to take care of you?” 

“Both.”

Cinder was so open, so vulnerable in her state of non-coping despair mixed in with, in that moment, hope. Jaune had slightly touched her with a droplet of hope to her trembling soul. She was scared, terrified of where she was going to end up, and what she’d be like when she got there. Emerald hated her, wanted her dead, Neo the same. Roman was gone and the rest of the operation was going up in smoke before her very eyes. Even Mercury, the only person she really had left, was apathetic toward her for the sake of Emerald, and the fact that he was now stuck in her situation plus one belt that could murder her if Ozpin or Jaune felt a malicious whim.

“I want to take care of you because, well, I guess everyone needs someone to take care of them. I wasn’t sure if I was going to fully commit until I saw just what Ozpin had put on you, and I didn’t want what happened in his office to happen again,” he confessed, shuffling a little closer to the edge of the bed and to her again innocently. Her eyes narrowed a little at just how close he was getting, and thus the blond halted, keeping to himself so as to not upset his charge. 

It had been a long time since Cinder had cried. 

“And the reason I responded quickly was because doubt isn’t something I have anymore Cinder, not anymore,” he continued, still not budging as light tears began to flow from her. He would only intervene if she desperately needed him to or she called for his intervention. “Someone taught me to throw it away. Pyrrha, the tall redhead on my team, someone you were probably going to kill her when you were going to invade Beacon.” 

His tone didn’t alter on the least sentence, about his past partner. It wasn’t at all angry, and if anything it was a little flat, showing how long it had been since he and the redhead had been as close as they were in their first few weeks at Beacon. That much was cemented in him being Cinder’s warden, and not someone else with nothing else to do. 

The half maiden opened her eyes once again, not realizing she had closed them to stem the slow flow of tears. Still, she was met with nothing but kindness and honesty from the blond knight’s own orbs of blue.

“Yeah, Ozpin told me a lot. But you don’t have to do that now. Not anymore. Don’t worry,” he smiled, but with a bit of her own smugness behind it. Of course he was a little arrogant and happy. He thought he could finally do something to be proud of, and he held out hope that Cinder could be a brilliant person too, with his help. 

He laid back, and put an arm over his eyes.

“So, get some sleep. We don’t exactly have a lot to do tomorrow, but I think sleep is important right? Especially after the day you’ve had,” he told her tenderly, more care devoted to her than she was certainly used to. “Good night, Cinder.”

‘Does he seriously care about me? How can he? I’m a monster. No better than a Grimm.’

‘No better than her.’

“Good night, Jaune.” Cinder whispered and turned over to face away from him again, but again with the tiny hint of a smile. Maybe he did truly care for her after all.

And while Cinder finally fell into a quiet slumber, she hadn’t noticed that the quiet, calm breathing had stopped, replaced by forcefully silent breaths as Mercury now lay awake, thinking about just what this meant for him.

 

The week blazed by before they had gotten the message from Ozpin that the apartment was going to be ready, and that they should go to scope out their future home before their fourth member was ready to join. Mercury was allowed to stay behind as long as he didn’t leave the Beacon grounds, which he eagerly agreed to as he shut off the lights and fell asleep before Jaune and Cinder had left the room.

In that fast week, not much had gotten done. If Cinder was going to admit such a thing to herself, it had almost been relaxing. She would be trying to run espionage missions nonstop around Beacon Academy and Vale, like she had been doing all summer, if this hadn’t happened to her. 

If anything her being caught and the operation going up in flames had given her a form of release Cinder had never been acquainted to in her life. 

Jaune had been nothing but kind. On the first day after than night, he was a bit more intrusive than she would have liked, asking questions about the plan and her past a bit aggressively, but always ready to back off. Oddly enough, she had began to open up more to him as the day went on, she was finding herself responding more rapidly to Jaune the more he showed that he cared for her. She admitted that she had been working with the White Fang for some basic muscle, and that the dust robberies had just been to scatter Atlas’s forces for when they would begin their real attack during the Vytal festival, only to be met with slight giggles from Jaune.

“Well, Cinder, sorry to burst the bubble of past you, but they’re delaying the Vytal festival,” he revealed to her, after his little giggle. 

“Wh-What? Why?”

“Because with all the White Fang activity in Vale, they’re delaying it for fear of interruption. It would be the perfect publicity stunt for them, you know, while being broadcast to all of Remnant. That’s why Ironwood is bringing his military in. To drive the White Fang from Vale before they even consider hosting it,” the blond explained, smiling in the sunlight, a little smug that Cinder’s grand scheme would be put on hold anyway. 

It all made perfect sense. Why even bother risking holding such a large, chaotic event with all the incidents that she and Roman had been causing? It would be like holding up a giant sign saying ‘Attack now! We’re trying to do a thousand things at once!’ Or, more accurately, broadcasting such a message on worldwide television.

“But, why are you telling me this?” Cinder had asked, a little confused and feeling once again terrible about her situation, thinking herself a rat in a maze as Ozpin looked down upon her like a stormy god and documented her progress. 

Jaune was sitting on the ground while leaning against Mercury’s bed at the time. Mercury himself was reading a comic book and absentmindedly brushing his fingers through Jaune’s hair, who didn’t seem to mind, of course. The blond shrugged and responded. “It was something Ozpin told me I could tell you. I know this plan meant a lot to you, but we had to stop it.”

Something hardened in Jaune’s eyes when he sat up, removing Merc’s hand from his head, who suddenly realized what he had been doing the whole time, and looked in Cinder’s amber eyes. 

For some reason, Cinder felt a bit of fear and disappointment in herself. She felt like she was being scolded.

“You know we had to stop it, right Cinder?” Jaune asked, guessing he wouldn’t get an honest response if one at all. She wasn’t that reformed yet. Not at all. “You know why we had to stop you.” 

That was not a question, it was a truth. A fact. She knew why they had to stop her. The loss of Emerald, her powers, and her confidence had made a lot of things clearer for her, including reality itself.

She opened her mouth to respond, but nothing came out. Almost instantly, Jaune’s eyes melted again. 

“But it’s okay now. It’s okay. It’s over,” the blond quickly saved himself, again with his ever caring tones and warm blue eyes. It was always how he would try to make Cinder feel better, with some simple reassuring words. What came after was under his breath, but both Cinder and Mercury heard him whisper something that made their stomach becomes pits to an abyss as he leaned back against the bed.

“No one has to die.”

Since that day, the questions had all but stopped. They had been spending a lot of time in their room, just being around each other. Enjoying each other’s company, something Cinder never thought she’d find herself doing.

She had always thought she was above such things. Almost like someone who was waiting to become a goddess in human form. 

But just sitting in the room, having Jaune order from every delivery place he could find, and Cinder never being allowed to be farther away than the nearest bathroom, she was still not happy. But what she had felt before, that happiness at a plan well executed, it now felt to her of being drunk; disorienting, consuming, heavy, and addictive. But as the days turned into a week and then after, into longer times in the guest room while getting ready for the apartment with Jaune and Mercury, it all beginning to fully settle in before the fourth member of their new team was to join them. 

It felt like something relative to being content. Another feeling that Cinder had never really felt before. 

Not needing to do anything, not needing to deaden or shut away her emotions to stop her guilt from making her vulnerable at the worst possible moments. Not needing to be Cinder Fall. Just to be Cinder. 

Cinder, who enjoyed seeing Jaune and Mercury play games on a past generation system. Cinder, who loved the little hole in the wall Vacuo place Jaune had ordered from last night. Cinder, who was currently sitting next to a very green and hunched over Jaune on the airship into Vale.

“Jaune... are you alright?” The more tender and caring half maiden asked her companion as Jaune looked a little queasy and seemed like he was preparing to spread his breakfast all over the floor of the airship, just like he did almost every time he took this mode of transportation. He held out a thumbs-up.

“Yeah. Just,” he quickly gagged, not throwing up just yet but about to do so before her and a few others seated away from them scooted away. It was going to be his bi daily routine and he was going to need to get used to it. “Just a little airsick. Nothing to worry about. Airships really-”

He quickly gagged again in his mouth and swallowed it back as fast as he could, taking a sip from his flask of water which he knew to keep with him when flying on the airship. “Just really make it bad for me.”

She didn’t want to admit it, but Cinder was feeling terrible at seeing Jaune in such a state. Ozpin’s voice came to her in that second. His words about the limits she was allowed with the belt. She could manipulate her aura, just a bit, and maybe it would be just enough to help her caring knight as he had been doing for her over the past week. She needed to do as much for him.

Placing her hand on his lower back, on the opposite side of his stomach, she began to let a small amount of her aura flow into him. 

But she felt something more. She felt his aura flow into her, also. The two were experiencing totally different sensations at this exchange.

Jaune felt like he was younger again. He was wrapped in a warm, soft comforter as a fire crackled under the mantle in front of him. A cup of piping hot chocolate in his hands, and as he drank it, the liquid heat flowed into him and the sweetness made him smile. But he wasn’t young. He was older. And he wasn’t alone under the blanket. There was someone with him. Someone with warm, amber eyes.

Cinder was someplace she had never seen before. A field of short, soft, verdant grass, extending into the horizon all around her. The sky was a deep, infinite blue, and while there were soft, small clouds lazily floating by, the sun beamed down on her. But it wasn’t blinding. It was perfect. She was happy. She was actually happy. And she wasn’t alone. There was someone else lying next to her. Someone with eyes as blue as the sky.

She leaned in to kiss Jaune, his lips tasting of marshmallows and chocolate, while at the same time, in a magical moment, Jaune too leaned in to kiss Cinder, her lips warm and inviting from the sun’s heat. They both opened their eyes to see their faces were an inch apart, blush evident on their cheeks, their lips still apart.

In that instance, their auras melded, the bright yellow-white glow of Jaune’s aura glowing prominently while Cinder’s amber light radiating from her blended with Jaune’s. The sensation was also such a rush, an exhilarating surge of refreshing, almost white purity washing over both of them. A connection forming from the stale flatness giving them both new pitch and colour. The psychedelic mild hallucinations were not so outlandish to take them permanently away from the airship, but it felt as if they were both melding into one solid form together. And it was surprisingly pleasant. 

For a few seconds, Cinder and Jaune just remained still and stared into each other’s eyes, unblinking and unmoving, trying to separate fantasy from reality.

No thoughts went through Cinder’s mind. They all tried to go through at once and became stuck at the door frame. Only one coherent and vivid signal managed to squeeze through, and that was Jaune, the entity that was the blond knight with the blue eyes and clumsy nature but the largest heart, Cinder could generalise, in existence. 

He was the only topic to her there and then. 

The only thought to pass through Jaune’s was the fact that his sickness and nausea had completely subsided, vanished. He no longer felt the need to gag or eject his breakfast onto the iron floor of the airship. His stomach had settled at Cinder’s touch and if anything, he felt a little warm under the collar and his heart was still fluttering before the half maiden with amber eyes.

Yet, wordlessly, they eventually slowly returned to their original positions to when they boarded the airship. Cinder sat with her hands in her lap, and her knees together. Jaune sitting with one leg crossed over the other, and looking out a window further down the airship.

Silence hung in the air in the following awkwardness. Both of them couldn’t explain the urge they had felt to join lips, but neither wanted to regret it or apologise for it at all.

“So,” Jaune breathed after a few seconds of silence, trying to make himself seem like something more than an idiot. Cinder remained silent.

“Thanks for the. The uh. The healing... thing. You just did. That. I don’t think I’ve ever felt better on an airship in my life.”

“You’re...welcome,” Cinder edged out slowly, with a petite smile on her face. It was the first good deed she’d done for anyone and it wasn’t the only reason she was mildly happy. 

Jaune hadn’t apologised for what had just happened.

“Hey, Cindy?” The blonde followed up, an almost invisible smile on his own lips as he continued to peer out of the window to the skies and city beyond the glass and metal box.

“Yes, Jaune?”

He put up on hand to his face to pretend to look like he was being contemplative, but in reality, it was to cover up the new wave of blush forming at the new question he was about to ask. “Mind if we get some hot chocolate when we land?”

Cinder’s shyness disappeared at the random question. Instead it was replaced by a more pleasant content and bliss, and she moved her hand out into the gap of the seat between them, almost instinctively. 

“I don’t see any reason why we can’t,” she responded complacently. There was another split second of silence before she realised. “Did you just call me Cindy?”

 

As the deadbolt clicked out of place and the door unlocked, Jaune took the key out of the hole, and slipped it back into his pocket. He grabbed the cup back from Cinder who was also carrying her own hot cocoa. It was odd for Cinder to see Jaune like this. He was without his armor or Crocea Mors at his hip, and the bunny face on his hoodie was proudly on display.

She too had switched out her own clothing for some Jaune had his sisters send, claiming it was for one of his female teammates who had her’s ruined in the wash. The white shirt and black and red leather jacket went well with the darker jeans that replaced her usual red dress, which was not suited for colder weather. Before, she had her semblance to warm her, but with the belt on, that was no longer advisable.

As the door swung open, they were greeted with a small, barren apartment. White walls, white ceiling, but lots of windows facing the city. It made it bright, and welcoming in the afternoon light. 

Yet despite all of the positives, Cinder had doubts it would be large enough for just Jaune and her, let alone Mercury and whoever else was joining them in the future. It was probably going to be hot in the summer, cold in the winter, a storage disaster, and counterproductive.

“This is amazing.”

Cinder turned to look at her partner, who had lights dancing in his eyes. Excitement was not powerful enough to describe the emotion that flickered in the cobalt orbs. Elation was closer to the truth.

“What?” Cinder asked, with a fair degree of confusion at this clashing attitude. They couldn’t possibly be looking at the same apartment. It was simply not the right one for her.

“There’s so much possibility here!” Jaune exclaimed before setting the drink down on the floor, and pulling out his scroll. “We can put up some beautiful curtains here, no blinds. I won’t work with blinds. Well, maybe blinds in the bedroom, if they’re better at keeping the light out. We can get a couch for right here, put the TV against that wall, and there’s a full kitchen! I’m going to cook every night,” the blonde gleefully sang while looking all around the rather vacant space. His smile and tone could make almost any situation seem like the perfect one for anyone. Maybe that was his true semblance.

As Cinder stood, speechless, Jaune took photograph after photograph, muttering to himself about carpets and how good the hardwood floor looked to his eye. He did have somewhat of a knack for interior decoration and was simply loving what he was seeing. Eventually, a question pierced the fog of bewilderment.

“You can cook?” The obsidian haired half maiden asked him, standing still closer to the door. 

Jaune stopped for a second, looking up from his scroll at Cinder before pulling out a tape measure from his hoodie pocket and measuring dimensions of doors and windows.

“Yup. Always said it was my number three choice. Before I left, I cooked for my whole family for four years. Mom’s a hunter, and dad’s a lawyer. They were both work-a-holics, so usually, my sisters would heat up something pre-made or order out, but once I started to cook for them they never used the microwave again,” he smiled, reliving the memories of his sweet seven sisters back home. He wondered slightly what they’d think or say of him if they saw him now; caring for a forming criminal, kissing a reforming criminal. 

“What about your number two?” Said reforming criminal asked.

“I’m sorry?”

“You said cooking was your number three choice. I’m guessing being a hunter is your number one, so what’s number two?”

For a second, the pleasant look of nostalgia and new beginnings had fallen from Jaune’s face, before a false smile had replaced it.

“Oh, a, uh, an Atlesian Model Judge! What prepubescent boy wouldn’t want to be one, right? I mean, come on!”

At his words she slipped, the tone of everything forcing her into a cloudy state of thought and melancholy.

Cinder could suddenly feel herself step away from reality, entering the catacombs of her own mind where she was keeping the despair and all other negative emotions that were lingering since her arrest of sorts and her confession to Jaune and Ozpin about all she was planning on orders from her mistress. It was where all the complete rage was being kept since her first meeting with Ozpin, and since Emerald left. 

She began to think of the little gem, where she was, whom she was with, what she was doing. Could Emerald ever forgive her for what she had put her through? Could Cinder even bring herself to say sorry at all? Or was it best to simply stay silent and remain hidden away from Emerald’s life forever? 

There were no answers. Not yet.

Her own actions with Emerald were to blame, no one else. Cinder did it all herself, she had taken Emerald and turned her into an object, a thing. Her own ‘little gem’ to play with and admire, and it had driven the mint haired girl to where she was now; with Ruby and Pyrrha and the rest of the girls trying to cope with the terrors that Cinder had inflicted upon her. 

And it was all the half maiden’s fault. It always would be

“Cinder?” Jaune called for the third time, finally snapping her out of her miserable haze, bringing her away from thinking about the little gem and back to reality with him. 

She snapped out of her daydream, back to Jaune, putting away his scroll and waving an hand in front of her face. 

“You alright?” He called, walking to her rather quickly with his warming ocean eyes and loving complexion. 

A bit flustered, Cinder spluttered “Yes, I-I’m fine, don’t make- I mean, yes, I’m okay, is something wrong with you?”

Seemingly sated, Jaune responded “Nah, I’m fine. I finished taking measurements and pictures, and we should have this place furnished on Beacon’s dime in a week or two more, then we can be ready to move in.”

Downing the rest of his now cold chocolate, he crushed the cup, and carried it towards the door. “Don’t make me worry like that. I’d feel terrible if something happened to you when I was standing right there,” he followed, gently squeezing her hand and letting go right away. 

For a second, Cinder was stunned. It was so easy for her to forget that she wasn’t Jaune’s prisoner. She was Ozpin’s prisoner, and Jaune was the one protecting her from the man at the top of the Tower. It was certainly strange to think of Jaune as a friend, even after that strange event on the airship, and their near lip lock. At least, they still hadn’t talked about it, so what else was she to think? Cinder was still very much in her vulnerable state and could hardly think straight for more than a day at a time. 

‘He’s like my knight.’

“Okay, it’s getting dark already. Come on, we’ll pick up some food from that Vacuo place you like on the way to the airship,” Jaune smiled while typing and sending a message to Ozpin, unaware of her inner thoughts. He was certainly a knight to her, maybe even more. A paladin perhaps, or a sentinel. He was someone who simply cared for her, and made it his duty to ensure her safety and wellbeing. And she was rapidly growing to accept it. 

After they left the apartment building, and made their way down a few side streets toward the restaurant, Jaune couldn’t help but stop at a convenience store, promising just to grab one thing.

He quickly exited and returned to his companion with something that appeared to be a small ball of crumpled red fabric. Cinder was a little confused, not only that Jaune had bought her something, but also what it could be.

“And this is?” She asked.

Jaune gave a rather nervous laugh before sticking all five of his fingers inside his gift, and opening them to reveal not a ball, but instead a very stretchy circle. “It’s a scrunchy! It’s what girls use to control their hair, sometimes. Not that you need control. I’m, uh. Yeah.” He was babbling again and rubbed the back of his neck again.

Cinder couldn’t help but smile for him. “So, it’s for me?”

“Yeah!”

For just a second, Cinder’s smug confidence crept back onto her face, deciding she could finally break out of her vulnerability with Jaune’s kind heart and thoughtful gesture. “And what makes you think I’ll wear such a thing?” She asked with a mild smirk, not her old grin of smug villainy, but of delightful and rather innocent play. 

“I’m sorry! That’s really presumptuous, isn’t it? I’m sorry. I thought that maybe it would help you be less recognizable, since your hairstyle is really beautiful and hard to forget, and I don’t want any of your former ‘henchman’ to recognize you,” Jaune babbled again, hating the thought of antagonising or offending her. He adored her hair, it was one of his favourite features about the woman, but he adored her deep amber eyes behind the hair all the more. 

“Not to mention I can’t stop thinking it’s such a shame how you hide your eyes, and it must be hard to see without depth perception, and it’s like you’re hiding, and I don’t want you to hide, and I want to see your eyes!” He cried, stepping so close to her, as if to hold her hands or even kiss her. “But I don’t know what I was thinking, assuming you’d go along with this just because I suggested it.”

Jaune was stopped when a thin finger was pressed over his lips as the other hand pulled the hair care product from his grasp, and quickly maneuvered obsidian black hair through it, into a beautiful and casual ponytail.

“How do I look?” The beautiful half maiden asked, a larger smile growing on her face. The honest smile on Cinder’s face, both from Jaune’s current expression, and the multiple honest compliments Jaune had just given her in his panic driven babble, tickled his heartstrings again. She did look very beautiful.

“I... Uh... Wow.” 

His heart was pierced, shot with an arrow of love. And not Weiss, smitten. That was trying to disguise the lack of confidence mixed with a slight attraction. He felt his entire body heat up. Like fire.

Cinder, on the other hand, felt warm at his speechlessness. She felt like she was standing in a field on a sunny day. “Should I take that as a ‘fine’?”

Jaune didn’t answer, instead he looked behind her, causing the half maiden to turn and see the same three rather large men approaching from behind her as Jaune was noticing. They were not just men. Instead they were all three faunus men of mixed races. A bear faunus, an antelope faunus, and based on the skin of the third, a snake faunus.

“Hey Cinder. Remember those ‘stupid animals’ you just abandoned a few months ago?” One of the burly and aggressive faunus men asked rhetorically, instantly knowing who she was and happy that she was there, finally able to give her what she deserved.

The bear faunus took out a large, copper pipe from his coat. “Maybe it’s time you learn why exactly you hired us as muscle.”

How long had he been asleep this time? In such a small, barely lit cell, time was immaterial. He couldn’t honestly tell anyone how long he had been imprisoned already. Was it a week? A few months? A decade? Well, his hair hadn’t faded yet, but his family was always known to go grey slowly. So he waited, and counted. Counted the number of steps of the robotic prison guard that stomped by his little slice of hell. Counted the seconds till it passed again. Counted the beats of his heart. Counted the breaths of stale, recycled air. And counted just how many mistakes he had made, leading up to here, his lowest point. And then, something happened. Or, more accurately, did not happen.

The guard did not walk by. 

It was a world shifting event. Perhaps he had just counted wrong. It can happen. But counting again, he was sure the guard should’ve passed two times by now. But, something happened again. And this time, it was not the absence of a happening.

His door slid open.

For the first time since he was thrown in here and left to the care of automatons, his door was open. 

Stepping out shakily, leaning on the doorframe of his small cell for support of his weak legs, he saw that the hallway was empty. He jumped as the loudspeakers squeaked to life.

“Roman Torchwick,” The voice of Ozpin rang out, echoing in the empty hallway.

The ginger criminal, sitting up from his recent spill to the floor waited a second before responding. “Y-Yes?” There was a pause before the speakers crackled to life again.

“Do you believe in destiny?”


	6. Hot For Teacher

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The girls of the Rainbow household take their last lessons of the semester, all before leaving for their two week reprieve with endless possibilities. However before they can even manage to get through the day and leave the campus for two weeks, almost all the girls give into themselves and decide to make the entire day one of love and fun.

Foreword by Headmaster Ozpin of Beacon Academy.

"Many people are not aware what I actually do with my day. And I must say, I am quite nearly offended. How are people not aware of the importance of being a headmaster? I do many things throughout my day that if I did not, this school would collapse without. For example, I respond to many emails. I refill Bart's coffee. I send Peter a text when his ranting has gone on too long.

"I also stop Glynda from being a cold, cold woman.

"But, what I do the most is simply love my students, and make sure they're cared for and loved.

"That is, after a plan spanning generations, sending people to their deaths, forcing them to lose limbs, and even putting them in situations where they suffer emotional trauma that they then pass on to their children, in order to create a perfect situation of love and healing.

"But mostly just refilling Bart's coffee. Man goes through that stuff pretty quickly. The secret ingredient is jet fuel instead of water."

From my desk to yours,

Headmaster Ozpin of Beacon Academy.

"So, students. Congratulations on making it through the semester. Your final has already been graded, and I am pleased to say that no one has failed. True, some of you could have scored better, but I attribute this to my failings as a first time teacher. As reparations, I have given all of you an extra ten points on your overall grade, as thanks for being patient with me."

Winter could feel the relief flow in a wave down from the lecture seats of her classroom. She had only started teaching four months ago, and was understandably unsure of her skills and abilities. Since moving to Vale to escape a certain order from her former superior, Ozpin had offered her a teaching position in a class he thought she would excel at teaching.

"So, as of now we can no longer add grades, today will simply be a class on rare and interesting types of dust. Something to help you all relax before the winter break."

Yes. She, Winter Schnee, former Heiress to the Schnee Dust Corporation, was teaching a class on Dust itself. The uses, applications, and ethics of said substance.

"First, we will be talking about a certain type of dust that, when inhaled, causes the user to see time move at a fraction of it's normal speed. At the same time, it also vastly increases their mathematical reasoning and accuracy. We call this dust "Verdant Aubergine Turquoise Scarlet" dust, after the colors of dust mixed to produce such an effect. Now, this can be a bit hard to remember, so when you look for it, it's simply called 'V.A.T.S. Dust' in merchant stalls and rare dust shops. Now, don't use too much of it. Side effects include melting the skin off of your body, giving you a rather ghoulish look."

As Winter continued her lecture, she spied around the room at her girlfriends, who seemed to be listening with various levels of interest. Ruby and Weiss were sitting as close to each other as possible. In fact, as Winter took a closer look, she noticed that Ruby was sitting sideways and most likely had her legs over Weiss's lap. She also seemed to have produced a juicebox from somewhere on her person.

Does that label say Durian?

Melanie and Militia were a level up from the white roses, and bless their hearts, they were paying attention and taking notes with all their concentration. Winter knew that they were farther behind in school than any of her other girlfriends, or even any other student in Beacon Academy. She, Glynda, and many of the other girls had stayed up nights with them, trying to help them through their homework as much as possible.

The elder Schnee's mind began to wander to her fellow teachers. Honestly, Winter did not know how Peter Port was even hired, let alone how he had not lost his job yet. His lectures contained more boistering and bragging than a poker table full of former hunters, with only half as much useful information. She had sat in on his classes once or twice, just to see if she could help her partners with their homework any more than she already could. What surprised her was that the classes seemed to make the homework harder.

Professor/Doctor Oobleck was even worse. The speed at which he moved throughout the class, the speed at which he talked, and the speed at which he jumped from one subject to the next made the class nearly incomprehensible. She had no idea how anyone was supposed to pass such an ordeal, let alone get honors like she had expected her own sister to do during her first year, which she had done and was continuing to do.

"Now, this special type of dust is very, very, very rare. So rare, I was surprised to find that even Beacon Academy has a sample of it. As you can see from it's bright, golden glow, it's very illustrious. The reason it's so rare is because it must actually be extracted from a hunter's body itself. You see, over time, excess dust which has been ingested, inhaled, and injected begins to form very pure specks, which build up at the base of the skull. After being extracted, this dust can have incredible, if not volatile properties. There are two downsides to this, however. The buildup of dust can actually improve the Hunter's abilities, and is often extracted against their will. By who? The second downside. This type of dust is very popular within the criminal underworld. Because of the rarity and value, it's street name is 'Soul Dust.' It's official name however, is named after it's discoverer, one Wallace Williams. We experts call it 'Wallace Dust.' in his honor."

Ciel took this opportunity to look up from her small desk next to Winter's. Ciel was not currently enrolled in any of the classes of Beacon, instead being offered an assistant teaching position from Ozpin on the same day he offered Winter her job. She had always been effortless in scoring the highest grades in any class, and graduating was merely a formality to her. After Ozpin had announced her to be an official graduate of Beacon Academy, she had been immediately hired as Winter's teaching assistant. Winter, after all, had been a warrior. A specialist in the army. Not a teacher, going through years of college in order to do what she had been doing for the past few months. Thankfully, Ciel had studied enough of human behavior to understand what she needed to tell Winter to do in order to stop being 'Militaristic Discipline' and more 'Talk to me after class, don't worry, you're not in trouble.'

Yes, most of her students were afraid of her in the first few weeks, but after a small accident with a vial of lightning dust forcing her to wear a snowy afro for a day, they seemed to become much more comfortable around the elder Schnee.

As Ciel scanned the classroom while Winter lost herself in the beneficial properties of active Water Dust, she noticed Penny and Neon sitting next to each other, giggling. Passing notes back and forth, Ciel was surprised at just how well the young gynoid and the energetic faunus got along. There was something that absolutely made sense also. Both shared an innocence about them. Penny's innocence was pure, and honest. There was so much she wanted to experience. So much she wanted to see and enjoy, and so much of it lay within her and all her lovers. Neon's innocence was slightly dirtied, if that made sense. Not dirty in a negative way, but dirty in the same way one who has spent the entire day outside having fun was dirty.

It was the innocence of someone who had done a lot, and loved it. Someone who had learned and experienced. Someone who had been hurt, but hadn't let it build barriers about her spirit.

That is who Neon Katt was. Love, sex, experience, and openness.

At last, Ciel turned her attention to the last person in the back of the class, where white hair mixed with pink and clashed against dark brown. She was in her usual clothing of a unitard with high hips and a short jacket while a pair of brown pants and white boots covered her lower half.

Oddly enough, ever since she had joined the relationship, she seemed to have gained a bit of weight. Not too much, but pudge might be the right word for it. Neo loved all her girlfriends, but her love for food seemed to be a close second. She ate it all the time. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, various snacks, and Shower Meals.

Shower Meals were a special quirk of Neo's. She would take full sized meals, and just... eat them in the shower. Steak dinners. Fried chicken. Zucchini bread. Most of the time, she would eat so much in the shower, the girls could see her visibly distended stomach under the towel she would wear to dry off.

Ciel only had two thoughts on such a thing. The first was that perhaps the shower eating was a form of comfort, or perhaps a sexual fetish. Either one was likely. The second was that if Neo did not have an abnormal metabolism, she would be much larger than she already is.

As Ciel continued to stare at her tricolored girlfriend, she noticed what her movements actually were. One hand was placed near her mouth, where she was lightly biting down on her pinky. Her other hand was under her desk, and it seemed to be-

Oh, Neo, my dear, what are you doing?

Ciel realized that Neo had not only had locked eyes onto her for the past few minutes, but both irises had gone a frosty pink. Neo's look of love, and lust.

Under the table, Neo traced a single middle finger up and down between her legs, slightly shivering every time they approached the top before making it's way back down towards her now slightly rotund behind.

Ciel scanned the room quickly, and noticed that no one else was paying attention to Neo, instead focusing on a vial of dust that Winter was demonstrating could force a person to be subservient for only one command, but during that duration would change the afflicted being's skin blue, and their hair orange. This meant that not even Winter had noticed her little mute's current behavior. This also meant that this display was special.

Ciel pointed to herself mouth the words 'Just for me?' to the aroused former henchman, who nodded with half lidded eyes in return. The analyst knew that Neo couldn't moan out loud, even if she wanted to, but perhaps the finger was to stem the flow of heavy breathing so that no one would become inquisitive and perhaps see what was making her heart race so.

Smiling in return, Ciel gave a small, dismissive wave and mouthed the words 'Later', which prompted Neo to stop, but also give a small pout as she sat up properly. Ciel saw this negativity, and knew just what to do.

Reaching into her desk, she pulled out her black covered notebook, and waved it teasingly, making Neo's face light up at the prospect of what might happen in between classes.

Before Ciel could get back into the lecture she had helped Winter write, a small bell rang out, signalling the end of class, and the beginning of lunch.

Winter sighed, and for a second felt saddened by the end of her first semester of teaching. "Well, I will see some of you next semester, some of you, next year. I do hope you enjoyed taking my class," she said as she started to pack her dust vials away "thank you all."

As the class filed out, Winter wiped some tears trailing down her face, taking in all the emotions from her first students graduating from her first class. This was her new life. She didn't just not mind it, she actually enjoyed it.

Before she could look up, and reapply her stern face, she felt warmth from all around her. Ruby, Weiss, Neon, Neo, Penny, Melanie, Militia, and Ciel had surrounded her, saying words of encouragement, letting her know just how good of a teacher she had been this semester.

She couldn't believe just how warm this Winter could feel.

"Yes, alright. Thank you. All of you. I could not have done this without your support and help. Now, let's all get some lunch before our abdomens cave in on themselves," Winter said, straightening her back and clothes while giving a small, confident smile.

As they made their way towards lunch, they did not notice the absence of a certain teacher's assistant and trouble child, who needed a quick bit of discipline before their next meal.

When the girls sat for the final lesson, Blake chose to sit with her blond girlfriend at the back of the tiered seating. There, no one could see them while they scribbled notes among other things; it was a good thing that Blake was left handed and Yang ambidextrous, slowly teaching one of her faunus girlfriends the same, just in case. A few tiers below them was Velvet with her own original girlfriend, Coco. Her sunglasses were on indoors, of course, despite her little bunny suggesting some attractive looking eyeglasses to deal with her tiny sensitivity to intense light. "Too librarian," the fashionista had replied.

Lastly, not too far away from the brunettes were the redheads, Nora and Pyrrha, sitting close together while the shorter ginger was fumbling in her seat, waiting for their elder and more professional girlfriend to begin the movie, all while her left hand was held in Pyrrha's tight grasp, inseparable as always.

Down near the front waiting patiently, yet furiously, for her mistress was the tanned gem with the mint hair, on her own from the rest of the girls and boys in the class so that when Glynda tended to her they would be alone with the lights down and the movie distracting everyone else from where all the girlfriends went and what those sounds were while their last lesson transpired.

It was just too much to sit like perfectly pristine porcelain dolls, waiting for the hours to drag by during their last lecture. It was also much to not give into temptation and too much to just sit, thinking about how the next two weeks were going to unfold before the spring term. They had done so much of it throughout the week, and it was completely driving them all stir crazy.

Pyrrha and Yang's minds travelled back to that first night; the first time when Nora and her hoplite goddess shared a bed with the rest of the girls from Team RWBY. When Yang had Blake purring in orgasm while Pyrrha and her little rose were both in sync completely, resulting in the redhead reaching climax gloriously to the other, all while Nora and Weiss shared the most intimate moment the little leg breaker had ever shared with another person. That was all they could think about, in flashes of what Pyrrha had described of the warm and mythic beaches of Mistral and how Weiss and Winter had told about the glistening snow of the Atlas Mountains, corroborating with the images and words in the brochures and vacation sites.

Darkness fell upon the classroom and the faint lull of conversation and light competition from the testosterone fueled boys came to an end swiftly before the rather loud title and music exploded onto the projector screen as the movie finally began.

It was the girls' collective favourite, a tale of a lonely huntsman in training who became taught by an age old warrior while traversing Remnant with two pirates and with two synths much like Penny in a lot of ways. So much so that Neon, Yang, Nora and the Twins would often compare the two synths to Penny when they all sat along the couch and watched, downing popcorn the entire time. Ruby would always be the first to defy the girlfriends and state that Penny was more like the naive huntsman in training, considering she was just so pure and righteous while also nimble with her blades in sparring practice. They all loved the movie so. The tale, the villain, which Weiss and her snowflake sister would always to compare their bigoted father in a heartbeat. How industrialist and downright barbaric he always was, everyone agreed that he suited the evil antagonist of 'Dust Wars'.

Velvet was seated lovingly in her dominant girlfriend's lap, Coco already with her usually devious smile protruding on her mouth as soon as the opening narrative crawled and Glynda made her way to Emerald. The professor shot the brunettes a look that said 'don't let anyone hear you and you'll be fine', followed with a slow, sultry wink. Of course she was about to start and go through far worse with Emerald once the students were fully engrossed into the film.

The two third year girls knew the drill, as they had done far worse in far more compromising situations and still managed to keep the lowest profile. Coco was even starting to think that her faunus partner and girlfriend reached her climax and orgasmed at such a high pitch, the rest of the people in the room had been to be unable to hear it. Velvet was always so silent when Coco refused to give her permission to moan. It was her role, to be dominant, and the bunny faunus was trained not to make a peep unless her loving girlfriend allowed during sex.

Coco barely wanted to waste any time. At the second that Glynda had switched the lights off and the film onto the projection screen, the heavy weapons gunner had brought her precious Velvet in for a deep and sensual exchange of lips and tongues, doing her very best to fan the flames and sparks below, getting the already squirming bunny ready for more.

Nora looked over and saw the lippy exchange, then looked up to her relaxed and collected gladiator goddess. Her sweet vision saw the striking verdant of sparkling emeralds in the dark classroom.

The ginger was, of course, struck in awe of her girlfriend's beautiful features, which she always was, but in the light darkness, with a smile on Pyrrha's face, she looked a different kind of beautiful. Like she had done that morning the pair had woken up together after the horrid night in front of the mirror. Pyrrha's confession. She was doing so much better, and she looked so much better, like the love was having such a positive effect on her inside and out.

Her complexion looked beyond radiant. And those emerald eyes, made Nora swoon.

"Pyrrha." Nora whispered, shuffling closer to her taller goddess, an arm on her upper chest just above the redhead's plump bust. "You would not believe how beautiful you look in the light of the movie right now," she followed, looking up at the flawless girlfriend in awe. Nora didn't care how cliche she was acting or how submissive Pyrrha saw her as; she was simply swept off her feet with how breathtakingly and humbly beautiful Pyrrha was. It seemed effortless.

The redhead gazed down to the smaller ginger clutching at her midriff, a look of longing in Nora's eyes as she gazed up. It was the sloping and flowing angles of Pyrrha's jawline and nose, what could be said as almost entire face. It was so refreshingly gorgeous and strongly feminine, enough so to make the ginger weak at her knees and her stomach flutter, sparking a familiar feeling deep inside but so different to the one burning brightly in Velvet and Coco a few metres away.

Nora just wanted to kiss Pyrrha and never stop until they were at the beach in Mistral tomorrow evening. Her seafoam eyes widened and circled again, looking deeply into her girlfriend's emeralds and before any other thoughts could cross into her mind, Nora leaned forward and upward, and her lips met Pyrrha's. And it was beautiful in the darkness of the stunned classroom.

The kiss was a burst of electricity from Nora that shot all the way down and into Pyrrha's cora, sparking the places in her that Nora really wanted to set aflame, all while the strong and flowing flourish from the taller redhead's lips flew through Nora's short frame and down, down to the silk between her legs, making it wake up and start to dampen before her more powerful partner.

Then, up at the top of the rafters, the highest tier of seating were the blonde and raven girlfriends, already in each other's embrace and their lips colliding in sweet and passionate exchange, tongues rubbing and lavishing the other with the sweet honey of their buzzing mouths.

Lemon mixed with dark chocolate and both of them had no choice but to smile cutely as they broke for breath, their tongues still licking the honey from the other's, trying to get that sweet taste they both loved so much. It was so fresh, so naturally sweet tasting that both bees needed to make more. They needed that pure sugar and Yang was smiling more as her hand moved of it's own natural accord, finding it's way from Blake's neck, down to her hip.

The other was intertwined with Blake's left hand, the synthetic composition of the metallic honeycomb arm feeling completely natural with the flesh overlay the Schnee sisters had grafted onto the buxom blonde's right arm.

And as Yang continued to smile and lick at her faunus girlfriend's lips, her left hand found it's way even lower, and under the desk.

Glynda looked from below, seeing the three separate sets of girlfriends kissing magically and passionately from their positions of the lecture hall and the proud professor couldn't help but grow a small and smug smile.

Then she looked to Emerald.

Mint haired, crimson eyed and looking beautiful as usual the little gem sat quietly and patiently on the edge of the tiered seating, with a look in her eyes similar to that of the six other girlfriends. They were all simply flowing naturally to get to the point that Emerald was already craving as Glynda walked to her, hips swaying seductively because she could see the glistening look in her little gem's eyes. It was beautiful, adorable even to see the tanned gem look so cute, and then as Glynda peeled off the front and layers, she could see just how desperate and wet she really was, and had been all day for her mistress. She must have been building up the desire and the need for her professor's touch and body all day, through her first lessons and lunch, and now they were culminating and the blonde witch was the only one who could truly see how badly Emerald wanted her. It was as if Glynda could see through her gem's clothes, seeing the throbbing down below and her body begin to flare up with heat.

An idea struck the elder girlfriend's mind and she looked to the very back of the room, to the store cupboard.

She made it to Emerald and looked down at her little gem, cupping her tanned cheek in one hand and looking deeply into her silently begging crimson eyes.

"Everyone is distracted by the film, would you rather watch it with them my gem?" Glynda whispered in such a sultry and almost snake like tongue. Her lime green eyes were like enthralling beacons, drawing the smaller girlfriend in and tearing her resolve to shreds. They glowed like the bastions of veilfire littering corridors of video games Penny would always play on the weekends, and Emerald would always take notice when she saw the green flames, she loved them.

The eyes were completely intoxicating to Emerald, and were drawing her up from her seat and her hands from her lap and into Glynda's own.

"N-No my love," Emerald could barely whisper as her lips trembled. That was, until they were being almost assaulted by Glynda's, sending the tiny gem with mint hair into a spiralling descent into heat and wetness between her thighs. Her mistress could see it, even without looking and without even Emerald's mention, Glynda slipped her strong and firm hand through the gap between tanned flesh and trouser hem, finding said wetness and having a hand ready to rub and send her gem squirming to the back cupboard.

Again lime eyes lit aflame as they stared into crimson orbs, and the ears savoured the muffled gasp from Emerald. There was no way to stop now, and that meant there was one single destination to complete their experience, all while the other six girls all got their fill as the movie continued. Emerald and Glynda headed to the store cupboard, the mistress already impatiently opening her blouse and going for the zipper of her pencil skirt as well. There was a special surprise awaiting the mint haired girl, one that Glynda rarely didn't pack into her lacy paties and executive pencil skirt everday she knew she had a class with Emerald, the temptation was just all too much for even the professional huntress with the riding crop.

The small door was quickly shut with a rather harsh slam as soon as the main battle of the movie erupted to drown out the noise. Then there was no time wasted, no restrained anymore as Glynda brought their lips together and practically ripped Emerald's buttoned blouse open to reveal the bustier she always wore in place of a bra.

In Emerald's mind, a cropped bustier was the only thing she would rather wear.

The perpetual darkness allowed for very little vision, but Glynda knew exactly where Emerald was and could tell by the sensual and particular angles and curves of her, that the little gem was allowing her heat and lust for her mistress to fully take control as she unbuttoned the hem of her own short, uniform skirt and allowed it to fall.

Her breath was raspy and completely starved as she broke from their kiss and reached down the toned and succulent sweet flesh of Glynda's abdomen and down to the surprise between her legs, feeling garters over her gorgeous thighs when the professor pushed her gem against the wall and stroked her thigh with her own.

"Glynda?" Emerald breathed in between kisses and her mistress taking her neck with pearly white teeth. "What are you wearing? In class?" The suddenly stunned gem asked in her incredulous and lusty haze.

What she felt against her bare thigh mixed with the lacy texture of Glynda's garters, was the silicone shaft of the beautiful cock that she had worn especially for this stage of her plan.

The professor placed her lips to Emerald's jawline and kissed sweetly as she took her hand down and gripped her beautiful cock, bringing it up and placing it readily at the opening whole of the completely dripping folds of Emerald's slightly petite, but purely sensual cunt.

"It's my cock, little gem, and I'm going to fuck you in the middle of class."

There was a gasp from Emerald, a wince, and a nod, and before either of them could say anything else, Glynda slide her entire body upward, and plunged her cock right into the dripping and almost consuming cunt of her little gem.

Emerald gasped and cried out in a moan as she felt the thick and slightly cool shaft of her mistress's member slide up and into the throbbing and now slightly convulsing walls, wanting to take the cock all the way to the hilt already on the first thrust with Glynda slightly laughing at how desperately Emerald was dripping, throbbing and wanting to be pounded in the cupboard with the class distracted.

Quickly Glynda retracted her hips, pulling her now glistening cock out entirely of Emerald's desperate cunt, smiling as she lavished her panting girlfriend with kisses and nibbles, on her lips and then down to her exposed neck.

The teacher was all over her student and Emerald was almost simmering she was so hot, hotter than usual. But then again, she was never fucked in the store closet of the classroom on the last day of the semester and never was it with one of the girls expertly crafted cocks.

If it were one of Yang's mythical dongs, Emerald didn't think she would be able to resist.

And then, she thought of Glynda with maybe 'Fenrir' between her legs, and lost all sense of control as they heard the pace of the movie pick up outside with explosions and shouting ringing all over the classroom from the film. And they could sense the heat of their fellow girlfriends from the closet. The mint haired sub could in no way take the wait as Glynda fussed with yet more foreplay; she had to be fucked and fuck proper.

In a rather defiant act for the gem, she reached down to the wet cock just waiting at her entrance and held it back up to the slit. She was just so hot for teacher it was remarkable.

"Emerald?" Glynda asked a little surprised her submissive gem was acting so erratically forceful.

However the dominant side of the mint haired student soon melted as Glynda's voice turned a little stern. "I'm sorry," she panted, but didn't relinquish the cock. "I just need you Glynda, my mistress. I need your cock."

The teacher smiled again and quickly grabbed both her student wrists and carried them above her head, quickly gaining power over the girl and then, as Emerald gasped again and again, her body slightly weak and intimidated perfectly sexually, did Glynda kiss her cheek and plunge her cock back into the warm, wet and needing cunt of the mint haired sub.

Emerald screamed, moaning in such a blast of ecstasy and almost orgasmic release that she felt as if she could have released there and then, but she wouldn't, not yet. She wanted Glynda to push her against the walls and pound her cunt into near submission, to fully have her way with her and then, Emerald would feel fully justified to release her climax all over the thick and sublime shaft of her girlfriend's cock.

"Fuck! Dust!" Emerald cried out over another well timed explosion outside, muffling her moans as Glynda pulled out a fraction and then thrusted her shaft again into the dripping cunt, wanting her lover to release rather quickly. The blonde was already picking up her pace amazingly fast, pounding Emerald's wet folds and making them even wetter by distribution with each passing second as her cock pulled back and then disappeared into the tanned student again and again, rubbing the interior walls of her cunt and driving the girl insane with the desire to release.

In her own heated thrusting, plunging her shaft into the all consuming pussy of her deeply loved girlfriend Glynda felt almost the same age, as if she wasn't even a teacher, or anything, just as if she was also a school girl of eighteen or so just wanting to love Emerald.

There became no age gap of about a decade and they were simply lovers, girlfriends, a mistress and her gem in their own bubble of love and desire, and Glynda was channelling it, using her fuel and love and connection with the mint haired girl that had formed in only a few months. It was a relatively small space of time, but neither cared. If any of the seventeen girls cared at all about conventions or norms or opinions, they would not be where they were.

In fact if they cared at all, Ruby would have never kissed her sister, and nothing would have been catalysed at all.

And as Glynda looked over the beautiful and tanned flesh of her deepest bondmate, as her lime green eyes looked into the open and ravaged crimson of Emerald's, as they both began to sweat and drip from all four sets of lips, Glynda knew only one single thing in the world.

She loved Emerald.

Glynda bit into her lover's neck, no reluctance, no control, no restricting herself at all, she just bit into Emerald's neck and clamped down rather hard, actually piercing the flesh and drawing a dash of blood from the tanned skin, suckling on the metallic tinge. Harder and deeper did Glynda plunge her wet and thick member into the warm and throbbing cunt of the mind haired girl. Emerald was passing into a haze, as she could feel the cock thrust deeper and the head rub against her walls.

Once she felt the gently suckling on her neck and the blood seep slowly out of her and be consumed by her lover, she went dizzy, stars popping into her vision. She couldn't control it, and all at once she did lose control and flourished into climax, her cum squirting out and all along the thick and glorious shaft of her dominant mistress.

Lips moved from Emerald's slightly bleeding neck to her own lips as the thrusting of the beautiful cock stopped inside of her keeping most of the warm and sweet juices inside with it. Emerald practically melted into her aftershocks, her wrists released so she could wrap them around her mistress's neck and embrace her closely and lovingly with the cock still inside her.

They slumped down into a stack of rather soft books surprisingly, and scattered them along the wooden floor, creating a softer, but still hard bedding of sorts to lay on as the movie and class remained outside for some more time before the final bell.

Neither cared about that, they were slightly exhausted and still in their bubble.

"Glynda?" Emerald whispered as she nuzzled into her mistress's embrace, the cock still in her still wet pussy. The mistress kissed her cheek and hummed in affirmation of her attention rather than speak or whisper. "I love you Glynda. I will always love you, so much."

The mistress kissed her gem closely and passionately again, with the same care and attentiveness she gave every night the mint haired girl would be plagued with a night terror or thought about her time with the half fall maiden living unbeknownst to her just across town with the blonde boy, her close almost brother, and the nefarious, or ex-nefarious Roman Torchwick.

Glynda Goodwitch was a far better girlfriend than Cinder Fall could ever be, without even trying.

The most lustful and purest of purrs came from Blake's mouth as she rocked her head back and slumped fully in her chair, building up more, more and more as the seconds passed with that most sublime of tongues working a magic over her rather tighter than usual and flowing folds. Her clit was throbbing, enlarged a little and completely engulfed in a hormonal flame as pearly white teeth encompassed it and took the nub between them.

Yang Xiao Long smiled as soon as she felt her gorgeous and dark haired faunus tense a little and then melt completely into the sensational sparks lighting their way from the clit of her dripping pussy all the way through her core and up along her spinal column, to her lips, of which the bottom was taken in her teeth. Blake had her hand inside her blouse, clutching on her left breast and pinching the nipple between her fingers, making her cunt drip all the more as Yang smiled again, chuckled just a little and licked up the seeping juices, tasting the sweet honey and practically buzzing for more.

She wanted Blake to cum, just as Emerald was in the store closet. Yang wanted that nectar from her faunus.

It was rather precarious, and certainly made the experience for both more electrifying and all the more adrenaline pumping a little, being out in the open of the classroom even if they were at the very back of the tiered seating with almost no one around their position and a movie on while Yang enjoyed her feast.

The blonde hummed as she lapped up more and more of Blake's sweet juices, lickign her way up the full slit of her cunt and then leaving her a slight nibble on the throbbing bundle of sweet nerves that had become her clit.

Blake was already writhing in the pleasure, overwhelmed by how exceptionally well Yang's tongue was performing and how euphorically the blonde brawler was devouring the pussy set before her. Her whole body was rolling as she gently thrusted her pussy forward and into Yang's mouth, begging for more and more licks and nibbles. She just needed to be eaten out spectacularly as the whole class was distracted and they had the time, her fingers pinching her nipple all the more intensely as the tongue licked unrelenting around her entrance hole, making her bite her tongue to stifle her impending moans.

"Yang…" The squirming faunus winced as the fiery blonde spread her thighs under the desk and fully edged her mouth forward and in, lapping at her girlfriend's cunt as if she was just as much a feline as the faunus she was eating. It forced Blake again to toss her head back and even fully open her blouse, then running her free hand down her abdomen to the mane of yellow hair buried between her thighs.

She knotted a clump of the blonde curls in her trembling fingers and worked Yang's head expertly, leading her girlfriend to lick up her succulent and wet pussy again and again all the way to that precious clit above, at the same time rolling the nipple of her left breast between her index and thumb.

"Oh, shit, Yang" Blake tried to muffle but couldn't, her hands were both busy and she practically squeaked as Yang took her beautiful girlfriend's gorgeous clit in her mouth again. Yang buzzed, laughed a little with her beautiful smile under the desk and then whispered only loud enough for the faunus to hear.

"Cum Blakey, cum in the classroom."

That did it. It send Blake spiralling, flying into her heated and clenching climax. She lurched herself forward, wanting pull her throbbing and convulsing pussy away from her partner's mouth, only Yang refused to move, not allowing her girlfriend's cumming pussy to leave her mouth. She wanted the sweet release of nectar into her mouth, the taste of Blake's secretion on her tongue and slipping down her throat. And the purring, fleeting faunus did as the fiery blonde wanted. She came hard and lusciously, her juices slipping out of her uncontrollably as she covered her mouth to stifle her moans.

She could feel Yang's hums of bliss as she lapped up the sweet tasting juices and swallowed, giving Blake's beautiful pussy another solid series of licks to clean her.

Then, after the orgasm dwindled perfectly and blissfully, did Yang return to her seat for her faunus to cuddle up to her lazily, both wanting to catch the rest of the movie before the final bell would ring for the end of classes.

"That was brilliant," Blake hummed as she embraced her blond brawler, cuddling up like a true housecat. "Thank you Yang."

Both Pyrrha and Nora could barely even keep themselves controlled, quiet enough to go unnoticed by anyone else, and they were closer to the rest of the class lower down the tiered seating of the lecture hall. But still both redheads had two fingers deep inside the other's dripping folds, not pumping or pounding in and out, but remaining in up to the knuckles and rubbing the inner walls lavishly, both finding the other's perfect zones.

It was a little difficult to keep so quiet, but as Pyrrha took the lead every so slightly, not empowering but lovingly and more stably, overlapping her sweet lips over her small ginger's, gently inserting her tongue and curling her fingers in down below, it felt so euphoric and contained. She didn't feel the need to cry out, although the feeling of Nora's own fingers finding that sweet spot inside her and never relenting as she paid it such glorious and expert attention. Instead, Pyrrha just focused on her smaller partner, blending her refreshing and verdant aura with the slightly electrical current pulsating from the leg breaker. And it was phenomenal for both of the redheads.

"Pyrrha, oh dust, Pyrrha," Nora squeaked as she felt the two strong and slender sink even deeper into her petite opening and lavish her sensitive spot even more, making her shiver with such ecstasy as she tried to keep up her own rhythm and pace, drawing her sensual lover out even more to where she was. They were both teetering on the edge before the plunge into orgasm, having been knuckle deep into each other for the length of the movie thus far.

To prevent any falling behind or lack luster finish as she felt herself slipping, and the orgasm coming at her, Nora dived in, and slipped in a third finger into Pyrrha's beautiful silk, and rubbed in her zone precisely.

The auburn haired gladiator jolted and before she could do anything or say a word she peaked and arrived at climax all over Nora's fingers and into her hand, muffling her glorious moan.

At the same time, in her last effort to draw Nora into euphoric orgasm with her, Pyrrha rubbed a little more expertly and deeply, making Nora's eyes almost roll back inside her skull as stars came into view and she felt her inner walls convulse and contract as she was cumming all over Pyrrha's slender fingers and into her perfectly sculpted hand also.

For both, it was a glorious finish, perfectly drawn and timed, and as both of them came hard and gloriously into the other's hand, they simply surrendered themselves to the kiss and melted completely. It was perfect, and they had done it, with over two dozen or so students around them, completely unaware of how beautiful the shared climax was.

The beret wearing girl ran a hand up the faunus photographer's thigh as their lips locked in a passionate embrace, the heat already rising in the bunny. Coco rubbed small circles on the rabbit eared girl's inner thigh while she grazed her tongue across the smaller girl's lips, seeking entrance into the cove of sweet taste and texture. Thier tongues wrestled, the briefcase wielder ultimately winning and consuming the smaller girl's mouth. And it was sublime, that taste of luscious milk chocolate as if the interior of Velvet's mouth was Easter.

As Coco dominated her faunus's mouth, Velvet whimpered into the kiss; her body was already trembling and her core was flaring in a navigable heat. She was beginning to grow wet for her girlfriend. The dominant brunette pulled away after nibbling the bunny's lower lip, lightly pressing a finger to the girl's now closed lips and smiling at how much Velvet was spiralling.

The machine gunner whispered into her sweet teammate's ear, quietly, slowly and as seductively as she could.

"Be absolutely quiet like I trained you pet," as she raked her short, painted nails up Velvet's thigh hard enough to leave red scores behind.

The fashion queen then pushed the skirt of her girlfriend's school uniform up as her hands trailed higher and higher up her thigh searching for the wet folds she loved so much.

Finally the more dominant brunette reached the damp fabric of Velvets underwear. Coco rubbed her fingers in circles against the clothed mound, teasing the already writhing bunny even more by blowing a bit into her sensitive ears. The faunus blushed heavily, biting her bottom lip to contain the noises she involuntarily made at the mercy of her bondmate's fingers. She trembled in Coco's lap, a subtle grind of her hips against the coy fingers.

"I'm gonna make you cum so hard, my little bun," Coco whispered against the skin of the other girl's neck before dragging her tongue from the girl's collarbone to her pulse. She shifted her lacy black panties to the side, running a single finger through the faunus's soaking slit.

Then, after a swift pump of her two fingers did Coco bring them back up, soaked in Velvet's savoury juices and she presented the dripping digits to the shy faunus.

"Open wide," Coco commanded.

Velvet obeyed, staying completely silent, or as silent as she could with her body trembling and squirming for the release her strong mate had alluded to giving her. She engulfed her girlfriend's fingers in her warm and salivating mouth, swirling her tongue around the appendage, making sure to clean it nicely.

Retracting the fingers, Coco slowly moved her hand down Velvet's neck and chest, stopping to pinch at the clothed nipples.

"You're already dripping and squirming in my lap, you're a bit of an exhibitionist aren't you dear? Just like the little snowflake and little Ciel," the beret wearer teased, lips less than an inch away from the faunus's ear. Her hand slid lower and lower, finally reaching its destination and rubbing the girl's clit in quick, sensual circles. Velvet pulled her rabbit ears down to cover her embarrassed eyes and blushing cheeks, all it did was increase the maniacal smile growing on Coco's mouth.

It was always perfect to see the submissive bunny so flushed and embarrassed that she pulled her ears down.

The machine gunner bit into the bunny girl's neck, sucking and marking her pale skin. She slid her fingers lower, toying with the faunus' tight entrance, causing her lover to dig her nails into her forearm in attempt to keep quiet. The little half moon shapes cut into Coco's skin, releasing her inner masochist as just a little blood trickled down her arm. She liked the pain, it was always so pleasurable for her, and it made her pace of rubbing her girlfriend increase as she began to drip herself from the seeping blood.

"P-please," Velvet managed to barely squeak out, just loud enough for the two lovers to hear. The flickering glow from the projector cast a devilishly seductive shadow across Coco's smirking face, leaving the bunny feeling more like prey than ever.

"Please what my pet?" the dominant girlfriend mumbled against the submissive's neck.

"Please, please f-fuck me!" Velvet breathed heatedly into the air between them.

The girlfriend chuckled low, penetrating the small girl with only the tips of her fingers before withdrawing them. "If that's what you wanted, you could've just asked," she winked over her signature shades which she hardly ever took off, not even in dark of the classroom during movie time. "Spread your legs wider," she ordered as her hand ran back up the trembling girl's inner thigh as she did what she was told.

They shared another steamy kiss as thighs were opened just a bit more for the dominant girlfriend. The beret enthusiast's fingers made contact with her rabbit faunus's hot, dripping core, causing them both to moan so silently into each others mouths as they were used to keeping quiet.

Coco's two fingers effortlessly slid inside Velvet's wet heat. "Now I know why they called you Velvet, my sweet," Coco purred into the rabbit faunus's ear causing her to gasp aloud and promptly cover her mouth with her hand. The dominant girl's fingers curled expertly, rubbing the bunny's velvety walls on her retreat, only to thrust her fingers back in so forcefully Coco had to wrap her arm around Velvet to brace her for the impacts and keep her from falling off her own lap.

Suddenly, the faunus's walls squeezed around Coco's glistening and soaked fingers. Velvet having her orgasm rather quickly and suddenly, too quick for the team leader. Coco knew her bunny faunus had another round in her, she knew her stamina in bed could hardly be matched by her other girlfriends. Her fingers didn't relent, the pace instead got even faster as she thrusted harder. She curled her fingers inside the twitching walls every time she hit knuckle deep, making sure to rub the top wall on every exit.

As the pace and force became even harder and more intense, Velvet could feel herself opening up, the walls and folds of her dipping cunt growing loose as always, having been pounded and fucked and such more times than she could remember just simply by Coco alone. She could feel her pussy dripping more and more and as Coco could feel the tightness wain, she smiled and had an idea, one she'd had many times before.

Slowly at first, another finger slipped into Velvet's hole, and then the fourth until there were none left, she was taking all of her girlfriend's fingers and still squirming and wanting more.

Coco did what she had to, and moved her thumb into her bunny's well lubricated cunt, completely stuffing with her her entire hand and filling the bunny up to her knuckles, but how she wanted to go deeper, to fully push her whole fist inside. But there was not enough time and Velvet would certainly pop into a massive scream alerting the entire class. Her hand would have to do up to the knuckles.

Velvet was forced to remove her hand from her mouth and brace herself, one hand resuming position on Coco's forearm, digging her nails into the soft skin, feeding her girlfriend's love for pain. The other hand worked at groping her own breasts through her blouse, trying to be as subtle as possible in the full, dimly lit classroom.

The machine gunner began circling and flicking the photographer's clit with her thumb as she thrusted her fingers mercilessly into the wet folds. This caused the submissive girl to almost sob in pleasure. Thankfully Coco was fast enough to cover the girl's mouth with her own hand before anyone caught on. She could feel the bunny faunus' walls start to spasm as she made quick but subtle humps into her hand.

"Cum for me, doll" Coco whispered into the girl's ear.

And Velvet obeyed, like always, like the good little submissive she was.

To literally bite back her intense moans, she bit down violently on Coco's hand, drawing blood just like her team leader enjoyed so much, her velvety walls clamping down again on the two fingers knuckle deep inside her, spasming as Coco's fingertips massaged the special spot within her. Velvet was cumming hard, her teeth never letting go of the hand in her mouth as it muffled the lewdest of noises coming from her.

Coco herself had a much smaller orgasm at the pain, groaning softly and slightly bucking her hips into the faunus's ass seated in her lap. She loved the feeling of Velvet's warm juices flooding her hand as her walls convulsed around her fingers in orgasm. She gently pumped her fingers in the girl, prolonging her glorious second orgasm, lightly littering her neck with soft kisses.

"Such a good little sub, so quiet for me," Coco praised as she stroked Velvet's hair during her aftershocks. She finally withdrew her fingers, causing the faunus to whimper at the loss. The beret wearing girl brought them to her mouth, soaked in the rabbit girl's cum. She opened wide, taking both fingers into her mouth and sucking them clean of Velvet's essence.

"Mmmm," Coco near purred, "my favorite flavor, rabbit's milk." She winked at the brightly blushing bunny over her shades. Giving a small squeak, Velvet buried her face into Coco's neck and gave her a small punch to the arm as the dominant girl just chuckled.

"I love my little sinnamon honey bun," Coco lovingly teased, still softly laughing at how flustered Velvet was after doing the most sinful things in a classroom full of other students.

"I love you too Cocopuff" Velvet teased in her cute little accent that never failed to make Coco swoon.

After barely ten more minutes, Glynda and Emerald returned from the closet, looking professional and completely undetected from their bout of fun inside.

Both looked around the room, spotting Coco and Velvet in each other's arms and still lightly kissing each other like, the cute couple they certainly were when all the masochism and kink was taken away. Next to them a bit along the row was Nora and Pyrrha, almost sleeping in each other's arms looking the most beautiful they ever had together and above them, up at the top of the tiered seating was Blake and Yang, the bees buzzing away and kissing as the movie drew to a close.

Truly they had spent their last day of lessons proudly and lovely. All that remained was the final dinner and night in their own bed before the long journey to Mistral. And not one of them was not excited beyond imagining.

Roman tapped his fingers against the counter. The old man in his store had been browsing for nearly an hour and fourty five minutes, but had still not brought a single item to the counter. He wanted to send Cinder to see if he needed anything, but he had let her go back to the apartment early, and rest. She would be back before they closed to help him restock, but for now, he was running a store, just by himself.

As the ginger criminal watched the balding grey head of hair slowly moved from shelf to shelf, row to row. Something itched at the back of his skull. No, not lice or a louse, but a memory. A nagging feeling that this was someone he knew. He began to run through a mental checklist in his mind.

Former associate? No, couldn’t be. All his former associates were either dead, captured, or in much better shape than this old codger.

White fang member? No. No way he’s hiding horns, ears, or a tail. Maybe a hawk faunus? Doubtful, no feathers to be seen.

Victim? Well, he’s robbed a lot of people, so it’s possible. But that seemed to strike a bit harder of a chord. For some reason, he couldn’t stop thinking of Red and her overgrown garden tool-

Ducking behind the counter, Roman clapped a hand over his mouth, and tried not to let anyone hear the string of curses currently flooding out of it like a dam lined with recently detonated dynamite.

Of course he knew this senior citizen! This was the guy he was robbing when he first met Red! Right before he nearly got his ass kicked by Glynda Goodbitch, who was currently teaching his boyfriend and his boyfriend’s boyfriend before the vacation.

“Eh... Hello? Is anyone there?” Roman closed his eyes and sighed as he heard the aged voice ring out near the counter. He had to hide who he was. Ozpin had told him that officially, Roman Torchwick was still in Atlas Prison, and that he must go through precautions to hide his identity. As he glanced around the shelves under the counter, all he could find was a single permanent marker. With a sigh, he pulled off the cap, and began to draw.

“I would like to, uh,” the shopkeep raised a bag filled with dust crystals and placed it on the counter, “to purchase these... crystals, please.”

With a flourish, Roman Torch- I mean Ravenna Candlefuse sprung up from behind the counter, sporting a rather large and garish black curly mustache with bangs so long they hung down in front of his eyes. Coughing into his palm, he began to speak with a rather heavy Atleasian Accent.

“Ohhch yes, How may I help you?” Spreading his arms wide, he turned his palms toward the customer.

The customer repeated his request from earlier, causing Roman to let loose a stray curse at the stupid question before taking a quick breath to regain his composure and responding. “Off course! How silly off me! Let me jhust weigh all of zhees through, and zen vee can get you on your vay!”

Sweating profusely, Roman carefully weighed and bagged every single crystal, which he realized he might’ve taken from the store of the man in front of him. He wondered just how close he was to flooding the store as he handed the old man his bag of crystals and receipt, waving to him as he walked out the door.

Collapsing to the floor, he pulled out his scroll and gave Cinder a call, informing her both of their early closing today, and his need for stress relief.

Down the road, the shopkeep sat at a table at a cafe, where a rather large man sat, his dark coat over the back his own chair, as he sipped some dark tea. After placing the cup down on the saucer, he cleared his throat. “How has he been adjusting?”

The old man passed him the crystals, and took the payment that was slid to him across the small table. “He’s doing well. Pretended not to recognize me, and I did the same. Didn’t act hostile or try to remove me as evidence. Tried to hid his identity. I believe Ozpin’s plan is going well.”

The larger man nodded, a small bit of metal in his forehead catching the light, appearing to flash. “Understood. Thank you, Specialist Lrigtseb. Your undercover work is among the best in all of history.”

“The honor is all mine, General Ironwood,” the shopkeeper replied with a salute before leaving.

Ironwood remained seated for a few minutes more. Ozpin’s plan was working, yes. But something was going to happen. Ozpin had been hiding something from him for a month or two now.

Something not to do with Roman, but with Cinder Fall.

What was happening tomorrow?


	7. Odds Are

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jaune and Cinder learn more about their Aura Exchange, connection and each other, how the feel. Mercury is caught alone by Jaune, and Roman Torchwick gets a second chance, and makes a rather unexpected ally in the process.

“Destiny?” Roman Torchwick asked, his mind still reeling from the events of the past few minutes.

“Yes, Mr. Torchwick. Destiny,” Ozpin’s voice rang out. 

It had been enough trouble to organize all of his grand game of chess, with and occasionally without Ironwood’s permission. He believed he had a long enough window to get all of this done, but he also didn’t believe he had time for stupid questions. And Roman Torchwick, a mouse in a small maze with the lights off, had a thousand questions on his mind. 

Still sitting on the floor, the stylish redhead leaned back against the nearest wall, next to his former prison.

“Well,” Roman began, still keeping to his puckish rogue bravado and swaggerish facade that made his smile utterly irresistible even in a prisoner’s jumpsuit. He looked up to the nearest security camera, guessing it was how Ozpin was seeing him in his cage, there was no plausible way he could. “I was never inclined to believe in such a thing. Free will, and all. I make my own choices.” The ginger criminal rambled as he waved his hand in a lazy circle near his head, giving the illusion of confidence and calm, while in fact he was still wondering if that, perhaps, they had decided that a death sentence would’ve been less work than life imprisonment. 

From his desk, Ozpin smiled, and his voice reflected the expression on his face.

“Well, Roman, maybe you should start believing in it. After all, everything you’ve ever done has led you to this, your lowest moment. And to me, the one person who sees your true potential,” Ozpin cockily lectured. However, for once, someone who was acting cocky deserved to do so.

“And what exactly can I become, Ozpin? Some glorified janitor at Beacon Academy?” Roman was skeptical, wondering if the answer was either going to be a corpse. Or worse, a lackey. 

“So you recognize my voice. Were you ever one of my students?” He took a small sip of his hot chocolate at his office, loving the exchange and the banter. It had soon become a game of wits and such to get the drole ex-criminal mastermind to move and simply follow the plan Ozpin had laid out so meticulously. 

However as always the Headmaster hardly needed Roman to advance his counterplot, the only reason he even wanted Roman in the first place was to ensure that Cinder would be comfortable and content, in the same adored and loving environment as the girls with Ruby Rose. After all, if six women were getting stronger and stronger, then Cinder needed all the love and familiarity she could attain. But Ozpin would never admit he cared as much as to actually do this and free the ginger gentleman. 

“Not really gramps. I was a criminal before I had my first drink,” Roman said, with a small chuckle, and a light flutter almost of his luscious eyes. Even in prison he was still bustling with confidence and a bravado that he was always holding an ace. When in actual fact he had been stripped of the entire deck. 

“Is that…. A little unusual?” Ozpin asked back in their exchange of wasted time. It sounded a little unusual and less relaxed of the criminal. But then again, he had been in solitary confinement for months at James’s metal hand. 

“My first drink of breastmilk, I’m not that much of a juvenile, old man,” the ginger remarked, smiling menacingly at the security camera, thinking he was really looking Ozpin in the eye on the grounds of Beacon. But he was not at Beacon, he was still in his prison while the red lights were whirling little, the entire system in Ozpin’s hands however and the establishment waiting for now for Roman to make his move. The entire facility was like a chess board on the Headmaster’s lap awaiting him to move his first pawn, and for Roman to drop his king and submit. “So, what exactly do you think I can become?” His arm pushed on the wall, rising him onto his knees, and causing his legs to shake before he steadied himself. 

The muscle degeneration of the months and months in his small cage was felt in his joints and pathetic muscles. The feeling of scrambling to his feet slowly and feebly was downright embarrassing and pathetic. Roman felt a rush of heat across his brow as his cheeks flushed. How he wished for Melodic Cudgel just to use as a crutch. 

“A productive member of society.”

Ozpin’s words rang true, loud and deep in the corridor of the prison, louder than before and dramatic; the position of overlord was getting to his head a little and the Headmaster was enjoying the omnipresence and masterful control of the facility. A short burst of laughter rang out, echoing in the empty hallways.

“Better men than you have tried to reform me,” Roman commented as he finally rose to his feet, leaning back on the wall again to catch his breathe. His legs were already aching and his knees were more than a little wobbly.

“But I’m not going to be the one trying.” 

Roman noticed that the voice was no longer as jovial as it had been a second ago, and thus, decided he did not wish to respond for a second. Then a minute. Whatever Ozpin meant by his comment, it made Roman’s resolve and legs suddenly cement and his hairs stood on edge. He was engarde and his mind wondering to find the meaning of the overlord’s words. 

“Well while I appreciate the escape route gramps, I gotta ask, what do I get out of your offer?” The ginger vagabond asked to the security camera deeply, not with a smile, but with a vacant mouth, no expression to speak of just in depth thought about what Ozpin would possibly respond with. 

By the white of Roman’s deep and dark eyes, he didn’t expect what Ozpin’s reply was. The criminal was expecting an exchange of information only for the slightly mad Headmaster to stab him in the back either figuratively or literally. From what little Cinder had ever said of the white haired wizard, he has an unscrupulous reputation among the half maiden and her organisation. 

“Freedom, Mr. Torchwick.” And for a second, Roman’s world stopped. “My offer is simply freedom, although there are of course a few, strings, so to speak attached to such a deal.”

Freedom. Even freedom with a leash was better than wasting away in a hole for all eternity. Torchwick had sworn to himself that a criminal so intelligent and powerful with Melodic Cudgel as himself would not die in a cage like a rat, he would get out even if it killed him, broke every bone and his resolve until not even Roman exited the prison.

And here it was presented on a platter with a skeleton key and a contract from a devil of sorts. But oh how would accept. 

“If I accept... I need more details,” Roman said, knowing freedom was as badly defined as tax rules for churches. He was simply being cautious, ready to haggle his way to better conditions. 

“I’m afraid I need a yes or no right now, Mr. Torchwick.” Ozpin replied, tapping his fingers on his desk. The window was getting smaller. Not quite closing, but time was not on his side, and that meant he was beginning to become impatient with the lemming for an ally. If anymore time was to be wasted in a back and forth needless exchange, Roman would miss his chance and be a captive of the Atlesian Military for a long while longer. 

“And if I say no?” Might as well test luck, fate, and any deities listening in, Roman thought.

As soon as he finished his question, five Atlesian knights on each side of him rounded the corner and marched down the hallway, effectively sandwiching the currently crippled Roman, ready to cut through him with a hail of bullets.

“Then my borrowed guards would be more than happy to escort you to back to your cell.”

“And if I say yes?” 

“Then your future awaits,” Ozpin’s rather smug and astute vocals sounded through the speaker system all around the ginger brigand as the synthetic personnel surrounded him menacingly. Roman could hear the smile reappear in the voice, like ink being dropped into clean water. Of course he could tell Ozpin was smiling and thus far, what Cinder had revealed about his character, it was all ringing completely true. 

“You know Oz, Cinder was right about you,” Roman back talked the possessive and intelligent overlord.   
“So arrogant.”

Ozpin’s smile behind his monitor faded at the mention of Cinder and the quote. He had heard Cinder tell him the exact same thing when Jaune brought her to him, when he placed the failsafe around her midriff. And more so, Ozpin knew exactly who had originally called his arrogance.

“I don’t really have a choice, do I?” While Ozpin couldn’t tell exactly, it had sounded like it was half to him, and half to Roman, himself. 

“Don’t think little Roman. Obey.” Ozpin smiled as he watched his airship land outside the facility, in the large open lot with barely any cars around, just a few more small airships and dropships, a few gunboats even and some knight transport platforms. It was right on time.

A single android walked forward from the parked airship with two items in it’s hands. It reached Roman in a few seconds with the emergency sirens beginning to sound off and presented the still dapper ex-criminal with his trusted and smooth cane with accompanying bowler hat.

“I had the firing mechanism disabled, for your safety, of course. After all, being forced into such a small place for months; Melodic Cudgel? I believe that is the correct name of it, must be a welcome sight.”

With a noncommittal grunt, Roman twirled the bowler hat in his grasp and then gently placed it atop his fiery ginger hair followed by leaning on the now non-weaponized cane. The extra support helped his degenerated leg muscles and gave him a second reprieve before he would make the long walk down the corridor, limping a little. 

“Outside will be a small airship to bring you directly somewhere where you will be briefed on your caretaker and responsibilities, along with the consequences for not following these guidelines. Understood?”

“Yeah, I get the message” Roman snarked back, grunting as he finally began the long walk, using Melodic Cudgel for the only purpose it could serve anyone. An actual walking stick. It felt even more embarrassing, as if he were in his sixties or seventies, not his handsome and dapper mid twenties. 

“Good. Welcome to your new life, Roman Torchwick.” Ozpin remarked, deactivating the loudspeaker, and watching in silence on the cameras as Roman limped into the nearly empty airship, which was currently being driven by a single man with green hair and glasses.

As the white haired wizard watched one of the last few pieces of his plan slip into place, he noticed he had received a new email from Jaune. Looking into it, it seemed to simply be nothing more than a list of required materials and a preferred budget of lien in order to properly furnish the new home. Pressing the reply icon, Ozpin began to type.

From Headmaster Ozpin of Beacon Academy,

Jaune, I am constantly surprised by your skill in the field of reformation, and am perhaps wondering if your shyness and lack of confidence was simply an act all along. You shall have all that you requested to turn the apartment into a place of healing and, perhaps even resolution, like that of your former teammates. I do hope the airship ride in was not too difficult, and that the new commute to classes will not be too hard on your stomach.

I do believe that with the small amount of aura manipulation I allowed Cinder, she could help with such a condition. There is even a more permanent solution, if I recall correctly. A technique known as ‘Aura Exchange’. There are some minor side effects, but the positives far outweigh the negatives. Do send me a response if you attempt such an act, or even better, come for a meeting. My door is always open to you.

From my desk to yours,

Headmaster Ozpin of Beacon Academy.

Cinder was currently in turmoil as two emotions fought for control of her actions. The first was the part of her that had not fully faded yet. It was smug, arrogant, and ready to burn the next challenger to ashes, or perhaps just leave a permanent mark on her victim’s face. The second was the current her, knowing that she could barely melt a snowman, let alone three rather large and strong assailants that she left penniless and clueless after Roman had been arrested. 

The old Cinder was defiant and steadfast, refusing to submit in case they attacked her and ready to defend herself with the tiny sliver of power she had at her disposal. She wanted to scream at the men around her; “Who the fuck do you think you are?”

Oppositely, the new Cinder tried to speak up, finding her confidence because of the nature of the situation. She had to say something at least, because everything she had seen of Jaune fighting ability had left her tickled and laughing because of how pitiful it was. “I don’t know who you think I am, but please leave us alone.”

Cinder turned and screamed, fully unleashing the anger that had built up over so long, weeks now, just so much of it however with no flame to follow. Her orange glow was lulled and watered down, the belt doing its job to inhibit her semblance and half maiden powers. “Who the fuck do you think I am?” She put to the trio of faunus, standing up tall around them, as if to face them alone. “Please just leave” she continued, though a little deflated. 

There was a reprieve, a nothingness, and then a beat followed by a torrent of sheer violence and attack from the faunus.

The Snake faunus swung his fist at the currently powerless Cinder, and with the belt around her, crippling her aura and semblance a little more than normal, he made contact, and knocked her down to her knee again. 

For her, it wasn’t a painful experience, but it was a worrying one. She stumbled back a few feet, but the punch had not broken through her severely reduced aura. It did however, make it creak under his fist. Cinder wasn’t really aware until a few seconds after just how much that belt had weakened her. A few more hits like that taken punch, and she would be completely defenseless.

Just as she lowered her arms to see just how close they still were, another fist filled her vision.

Only the second was to be caught, inches away from her face. The half maiden turned to her right, and saw Jaune with an expression she had only seen hints of before. His eyes were bold and a strikingly oceanic blue, like the purest of water, and his smile, confident, loving, and possibly false, was no longer there. He had replaced it with a solitary lined mouth of seriousness. In fact, with his current expression, it was hard to think that face had ever smiled before at all.

“Get behind me,” the blonde paladin yelled to his companion. It was less of a request, and felt more like a tidal wave telling someone to drown. Compliance was negligible and in a second Cinder wanted nothing more than to run and stand tall behind Jaune, who was probably even more powerful than she, only with a severe lack of experience, which she did possess. 

The faunus men grunted, laughing almost at the weak stature of the knight with bright yellow hair. “Oh, what, you her boyfriend?” Said the snake faunus who was shaking the fist that Jaune had caught, as if trying to air cool a burn.

“Caretaker,” the knight corrected them and for a second, Cinder’s heart sank.

“She can take care of herself, bud,” another one of the brigands, the bear faunus it appeared to come from, grunted back to the defiant Jaune. 

His mind may have been erratic, or even stupid in standing up to them and how insanely built they were, hell, they were members of the White Fang or at least used to be. He surely stood no match at all. But what was more important than that, was that Cinder was helpless before them in her state, and she stood even less of a match for them. 

“Maybe. But it’s my job,” he countered boldly, guarding her even without Crocea Mors, which would be very desirable in either his hands or Cinder’s. In her split mind, all the half maiden could wonder was is if that was all he really thought about her. Was he really her caretaker, little more than a warden. 

“Just a job, huh?” Were the words coming from the antelope faunus, smiling at the prospect of him letting her go quietly.

“No, it’s my choice, too. And you’re not getting to her as long as I’m standing,” Jaune said defiantly, bolder than he’d ever been in his life, more so than his dealings with Cardin Winchester and more so than he had ever been with his former partner, Pyrrha. He was ready to fight too, getting into an unarmed sparring position, like Cinder had taught him briefly and sparsely. He wouldn’t do much, if anything he could hold them off while she could get a weapon of some kind.

Cinder was glad she was standing behind him, as she thought her cheeks were blushing so brightly, that she might blind Jaune.

“Yeah, well how about I fix that?” The bear faunus taunted them both as he spun his weapon in his hand like a blade, before flicking it upward, letting it leave his hand, and allowing it to fly upward. As he threw the pipe into the air, the copper flashing in the street lights, catching Jaune’s attention, the exposing the fault of any amateur, forcing his concentration to leave the real threat.

Just as Jaune followed the pipe’s arc, the horned faunus took the opportunity to use his naturally powerful hind legs to deliver a kick right into his temple with a steel toed boot, sending him into unconsciousness and toppling him, crashing to the ground like a sack of bricks as the largest faunus of the group caught his pipe.

“And you thought we were just stupid animals, huh, Cinder?” The largest of them bellowed, his bear canines looking like daggers to Cinder’s frightened mind. A week ago, no would would ever find their bodies, for in order to they would have to figure out a way to separate ash from gutter water. Now? They could kill her, easily.

“No, I-” She could barely speak so was suddenly so wrapped in a constriction of her own insecurities and fears. 

The next thing she knew, she was on the ground, and everything was blurry. Her aura had held up against the pipe crashing against her skull, but it wouldn’t hold after another hit, and one more after that would do damage. Serious damage. Aura was good, but it couldn’t fix a caved in skull.

She saw that Jaune had begun to stir. The aura might’ve taken the brunt of the attack, but the force behind it had still rattled his brain.

“Glad to see you’re still with us.” The slit eyed, scaly aggressor said as he circled around, looking at her upside down.

Grabbing her by the collar and forcing her up, she was met with the sight of the pipe slicing towards her again, an odd tone made by the hollow end rushing through the air. But Cinder was wrong. She had underestimated the aura limiting capabilities of the belt. She couldn’t tank two more hits before her aura broke. One was all it took.

The pipe slammed against her forehead again. Although it broke through, and it didn’t leave her too badly hurt. She fell towards the ground again, and caught herself on her hands, which scraped themselves on the coarse pavement.

As she flipped off of her stomach, onto her side, she felt warmth drip down her face, the pipe not cracking her skull, but slicing through her aura and leaving a cut due to the not-quite-smooth edge.

“Man, you really are weak, aren’t you?” The bear faunus chuckled and laughed like a brutish child in the playground as he strode towards her and took up residence near her head. The bear stood over her, and tapped her forehead like a golfer preparing to tee off. “Too bad you didn’t follow through on your promise to the White Fang. Now, I’m gonna follow through on my swing, and show the world why we are to be respected and feared,” he tapped his foot on the ground, like a baseball player getting the dirt off of his shoes “Like you should’ve been all along.” 

As he lifted the heavy pole of metal, and began to bring it down like a person chopping wood, time slowed as she had what she assumed were her final thoughts.

I’m sorry. Everyone. Everyone I have hurt. I’m sorry, Jaune, for not being able to be the person I wanted to become for you. I’m sorry, Amber, for putting you in the state you’re in. Maybe me dying will give you your life back. It’s what you deserve. And most of all.

I’m sorry, Emerald. I didn’t deserve you. And you didn’t deserve to have what I did to you done. I don’t want to die. I don’t want to--

But the blow didn’t come. 

As Cinder opened her eyes, she saw the pipe above her, bent at an angle by the hand that caught it. A hand connected to an arm inside a black hoodie. A black hoodie with a rather ridiculous bunny symbol on it.

Jaune? Yes, Jaune had saved her.

“What the fuck?” The bear faunus asked the air as his face popped with an incredulous shock, and it was valid, Jaune had seemingly come out of absolutely nowhere with his bunny hood over his blonde locks, the bear’s bravado draining faster than water down a drain.

The bear faunus was confused. Not by the boy catching the blow, but by the boy himself.

The first was that the pipe had been caught, then went limp in his hand. In fact, it just hadn’t gone limp, but the area around his hand had actually started to glow, like it had gone molten. Second, one of his eyes was currently glowing with what looked like fire. Not the eye itself, but the eye and the surrounding area.

But before the attacker could say another word, Jaune spun on his heel, delivering a smoking, hard fist into the face of the mugger.

As he landed backward and started to scream in a burning rage and pain, from the smoldering flesh on his face slowly branding him with a large fist shaped burn mark, the other two looked to the blonde boy, who was currently glowing with both power and rage. Before the other two White Fang could make any threats, Jaune acted.

“If I ever. Ever. Catch you three, or any other White Fang assholes around her again, I will burn your asses to Vacuo and back. Understand?” Jaune himself didn’t know what his emotion was. It wasn’t just anger.It was fury, a righteous and just fury.

Both faunus looked towards their largest comrade, who was the strongest out of any of them, as he quietly seethed on the floor, his hands still wrapped around the center of his face where Jaune had punched him. He was still steaming and they could faintly smell the whiff of a thin burning. The bear was not going to get up, his pride and motivation had been blasted to the moon when Jaune had right hooked him. After looking at each other, they looked back at the blonde paladin and silently shook their heads quickly.

Jaune closed his eyes, and the glow faded. “Go on then. Take your friend, get him to a hospital or whatever and leave. I won’t stop you.”

As the other two carried the third on their shoulders down the street, Jaune watched them go. He looked down, and noticed the glowing pipe which had his fingerprints pressed into the rapidly cooling metal, tossing it onto the ground. “And take your trash with you.”

After they rounded the corner, Jaune felt himself rapidly grow exhausted. He felt Cinder behind him, and knew that it was now or never. After he took a deep breath. 

“You said you know why I, we, Ozpin, whoever had to stop you?”

She looked up at him, his face hidden as he continued to look at the corner where he had saw them go, making sure they wouldn’t come back. What Cinder didn’t know was that he wasn’t sure he could stop the other two if they did. The blonde had simply taken the chance because he knew he probably couldn’t melt the faces of the other two faunus. Nor did he want to really. He had grown a lot smarter and bolder for sure, but never inexplicably violent or bloodlustful. 

“Because of stuff like this. Your past, it’s gonna catch up to you. They were in the wrong, but so were you, in the past,” the blonde explained, his glee and cheerfulness still struggling a little to return as he calmed himself down. His aura finally hit near critical levels after the extensive use, and it hit his body like a sledge hammer. 

Cinder saw the exhaustion drape around his body, forcing him to slouch, and nearly stumble.

“I don’t want you to get hurt. I don’t like seeing you get hurt. If you were actually ever seriously hurt, I kinda don’t know what I’d do” Jaune admitted, the loss of energy destroying the filter between his brain and mouth. “I know it hasn’t been long and you still have no reasons to trust me, but, we’re in this together now Cinder,” he stammered, becoming his old awkward self again, just as he once was around Ruby and around Pyrrha, shy and introverted and awkward, but also the sweetest boy on Remnant. “I care about you.”

As he turned around, Cinder saw the kind look in his eyes as they saw nothing, lost in thought. But as his eyes focused, concern exploded out of him from every pore, and his smile disappeared as worry took it’s place on his face.

“Oh dust, Cinder, are you alright?!” He asked suddenly remembering the blood coming from her wound and how many times the brigands had hit her while he was dealing with the rest, crouching down to join Cinder on the sidewalk as he examined her forehead while he also simultaneously tried to brush dust and dirt off of the heels of her hands. Confusion was first in her mind before pain exploded above her right eye. 

Oh right, the pipe.

 

“Look, just hold still, okay? This might sting. I’ve never done this before,” Jaune fiddled a little pathetically but trying his best to brush her obsidian fringe out of the way and to look at the wound. He raised his hand. “In fact, I think you might’ve accidentally taught me this yourself. Weird how things turn out right?”

As he placed his hand on the side of Cinder’s face, she felt his aura flow back into his body, and automatically, her repressed aura flew into him too. And suddenly, they were back where they were that morning on the airship. But, they weren’t. Jaune wasn’t under his blanket. Cinder wasn’t in her field.

Jaune lay in a sunny field, holding hands with Cinder, who looked deep in his eyes. To him, the place felt familiar. He had never been there before, and yet it also felt like home at the same time. Or maybe it was Cinder that felt like home more. Jaune didn’t want to tell the difference. The meld was perfect enough as it was. More home than any place had ever felt before. He had also never seen Cinder look so calm before. So peaceful. So happy.

Cinder herself was under a blanket in a cozy, warm, inviting house, with Jaune sat next to her, looking at the fire before apparently noticing her, and turning and looking deep into her eyes. Something about the house felt more than just a house. More than just a home; it was the blanket’s warmth, the heat from the fireplace, the hotness from the cup of hot chocolate she herself held in her hands, which matched Jaune’s own. It all felt, just so endearingly loving.

He saw the warmth in her eyes, too. He felt she was glowing brighter than the sun, her amber eyes clashing with the green grass they both laid in. Before rational thought could overtake his mind, he leaned in to kiss her on her warm, plump lips.

Cinder saw the care in his eyes, the care he held for everyone, the care for her. For her more than anyone else. He placed the hot chocolate down on the coffee table in front of them, and lifted his arms out from under the blanket. He mouthed two words that Cinder knew were ‘come here,’ as he lightly placed his arms around her shoulder and head, and drew her in for a kiss, but she leaned in and rushed to kiss him on his chocolate tasting lips.

They both closed their eyes.

And as they opened them, they were back on a dirty sidewalk in Vale after the sun had set, and a street light was above them. 

Their lips were locked, and for a second, they let it sit. Both in confusion and enjoyment at the situation. His lips had tasted like powdered sugar, the sweetness making Cinder’s tingle and curl; she had smiled as they kissed, the little sparks of sensations on her own plump lips. It felt extraordinary. By far the best, if not the only kiss that Cinder had truly lost herself in, and in almost every way, she was so glad that it had been with Jaune, the sweetest person she had ever met. And yet she could still not pinpoint why or how he had slowly developed feelings of affection for her. But sure enough he had. 

Cinder’s lips tasted polar opposite to the powdered sugar of the blonde’s. Instead of the sweet, sparkling pop of the sugar, the lips of the obsidian haired and illustrious beauty were sublime, malt and deep, the taste of a rather heavy and yet so luscious red wine on her plump lips. Jaune had never gotten explicitly drunk before, but as they held the kiss and explored each other’s mouths a little more, he could tell that if given the chance, he would slip into blissful and loved up tipsiness just by the taste of the spirit on her gorgeous lips. 

Both could telepathically agree, that it was the best kiss either had shared. And they had slipped into it simply by Cinder’s magical aura meld.

As they broke contact, they stared at each other. Neither knew what had truly just happened, but both knew that they did not regret it, just like their fleeting and beating moment on the airship and almost every moment since then. And both wanted to apologize, for fear of offending the other, but then again they didn't. Neither also wanted to apologise, because it was such a precious and natural moment, when Jaune had the courage to show Cinder how he had grown to adore her and where Cinder finally placed her faith in herself again and followed up by admitting her feelings for the blonde knight. 

Cinder could not think anything except ‘I have no idea what I’m doing.’

Jaune’s only thought was ‘I just shared my first kiss with a potential terrorist and murderer who once planned to kill most of the students and teachers at my school. Awesome.’

The lemon blonde knight scratched behind his head, still worried at the look Cinder was giving him. He couldn’t tell if it was one of plain bewilderment, or one of being distressed. He hoped to any and every higher power known to him that it was not regret. He could hardly handle regret. Not after such a momentous moment in his life, and, truthfully in hers too.

“So. Your wound stopped bleeding,” he said, pointing to her forehead.

Reaching to feel the cut, she could tell it was still there, but it was like time had passed rapidly, two or three weeks forward and it was well on it’s way to healing, but it would be a while until it was totally gone; until then she’d wear a rather alluring scar on her forehead and scalp. Blushing as the shock of their sudden affectionate moment faded, and embarrassment took it’s place, she put on a false voice of control and professionalism. 

“Yes. I believe your aura might have some form of healing properties,” she confessed to him, it had been her suspicion for a while and her new scar was proof that aura was a large healing field and when he concentrated, the paladin, he truly was. 

Jaune, still neutral faced and sweating slightly, although he couldn’t really feel it, from the exhaustion of the fight, helped her up. And as they walked down the street towards the airship back to Beacon, Cinder grabbed his hand, worried that he would wrench it out of her grip. Instead, he interlaced his fingers with hers, joining them together fully, and he was damn proud of himself too, for he adored Cinder Fall completely, regardless of whether she was a terrorist, of if she was even trying to escape her failsafe. Jaune had inexplicable feelings for her, and he was damn proud that he had them, even prouder that he acted on them. 

After a deep sigh, Cinder finally decided to speak up, and dropped the false formality. “Are we going to talk about what just happened between us?”

Jaune puckered his lips, and let out a slow sigh before responding. “What it means for our future? What it means to Mercury? Or what it means for Ozpin and this assignment if he finds out?”

“Yes,” Cinder replied, not caring and just too tired to respond to all the points individually.

Jaune looked at the girl he just shared his first kiss with, and felt a rush of warmth, or perhaps heat, at the fact that Cinder’s hair was still in a pony tail. “We will. We’ll talk about all of it. First, you gotta go to the infirmary as soon as we get back.” 

Scoffing, Cinder replied. “Jaune, I’m fine. The cut’s healing.”

“I’m not worried about the cut, I’m worried about a concussion.” Jaune said, giving a small tap to the side of her head. “I don’t want you getting back to the room, passing out on a bed, and finding out I’m not able to wake you up the next morning.” 

Cinder practically swooned at the care, more care than anyone in the whole world had ever given to how she was feeling or if she was well. All save Emerald, and Cinder’s mood dipped a little at the thought of the mint gem. 

‘Of course he’s worried about a concussion’, Cinder thought. Anyone would be if they had just seen someone hit with a pipe twice, and to the temple in such a manner as Cinder had. If she didn’t think about that, maybe that hit did scramble her a bit more than she thought. Or, perhaps, maybe she was just still disoriented from that kiss, she concluded.

Cinder traced her finger over the cut, which was no longer painful, and noticed that her scraped hands had also healed, so no scars or scabs remained. She clenched her fist and walked closed to Jaune, so they bumped together. “But we are going to talk about this?” 

“I think we have to,” Jaune replied with a tinge of being overwhelmed on his voice.

On the airship, Cinder rested her head on Jaune’s shoulder, and felt his warmth through the hoodie. She couldn’t tell if the warmth was his Aura, or just his body heat. Jaune, on the other hand, was worried his heart was about to burst through his chest. Not only had he shared his first kiss with someone he found absolutely beautiful, more so than both Pyrrha and Weiss, but she actually seemed to want to stay by his side after it.

That was something completely unexpected to Jaune Arc. And the main reason he had never taken his chance with Pyrrha in their first year, when they were partners. 

After the airship had dropped them off at Beacon Academy, Jaune and Cinder took their time walking through the front courtyard. They enjoyed the quiet and peace before classes would resume in the next few weeks and as they approached the point at which they would have to split, Jaune took both of Cinder’s hands, and rubbed the back of them with his thumbs.

“I’d love to come with you to make sure you’re healthy. I would, but I need to report this to Ozpin as soon as possible. I just need to check that Mercury is still there too. I’ll see you soon, I promise. Just stay safe alright?” Jaune gave a small smile to her expressionless face.

Without responding, Cinder responded instinctively and tenderly with a light kiss on the lips, fully throwing away all brisk composure they used to have to remain disconnected and fully embracing the bubbling affection between them both.

“Thanks for the nice day Jaune,” giving the him the first real smile of her’s Jaune had ever seen, and forcing his mind to overheat for a second.

Jaune nodded, pursing his lips, and opened his mouth as if to say something more before thinking it best to shut it as she walked off. As soon as he knew that Cinder could no longer see him, he took a moment to get down on both knees and threw his fists to the sky to thank whatever gods may have helped him have his first kiss. After getting back up, he took a second to dance, revelling in the feeling of being kissed again, and having her be the one initiate it.

As he approached the dorm, he became more and more aware of a weight in his right pocket. He knew what it was, but he didn’t want to acknowledge it, especially not after today. Nevertheless he felt the need to look at it, interact with it, and thus he held his breath while pulling it out, and rolling it around in his hands.   
The small pale remote to the belt that was keeping Cinder bound felt like it weighed ten pounds to him. Despite everything, he was still unsure of himself. 

He wanted to take the belt off of her. It didn’t feel right to have that kind of power over her combined with the feelings he now bore for her. ‘Was she doing this just because she thinks I’ll be easier on her?’ Jaune thought. ‘Or maybe she thinks that I’ll take the belt off of her because of it.’ 

The real pain, the nagging and white noise in the back of his head that was beginning to swell with doubt and self insecurity, was that he himself had no idea if he wanted to remove her failsafe. No clue whether or not it would be the correct idea, and no clue if she would not kill him still. 

She was still Cinder Fall. And that sent chills of fear down Jaune’s spine, bringing him back into reality and normality.

He sighed, pocketing the remote once again remembering he couldn’t take the belt off of her if he wanted to, anyway. Only Ozpin could. Jaune also gave a slight chuckle at the realization that he never actually took the time to contemplate the chance that a beautiful girl could actually like him without an ulterior motive. “I am the right man for the job, aren’t I Ozpin?” He half whispered to himself before opening the door.

What was on the other side, the lemon blonde did not expect, and did not know what surprised him more; the fact that Mercury Black had rather splendid and perfectly crafted bionic legs, or the fact that the reason he now knew Mercury had his stunning bionic legs was because Cinder’s lovely and lavish, stylish red dress with golden accents and flourishes, didn’t extended so far passed the teen’s knees. This forced Jaune to perform a double take, and realise.

Yes, Mercury Black was wearing Cinder Fall’s dress. He was actually wearing it. And it also looked incredibly beautiful in it, 

So, while Jaune and a crossdressing Mercury stared at each other for a few seconds, i was the starstruck and shellshocked Jaune responded first; “So, we’re going to talk about this when I get back. But, for the record, I would put it back before Cinder gets back from the infirmary,” Jaune said before nearly shutting the door, only to open it a few inches before leaving one last comment before he went to see Ozpin, “but I think it looks very cute on you.”

And with that, Jaune shut the door to leave Mercury in shock, and blushing, in questionably more places than one due to Jaune’s sweetness and exploring eyes. 

Jaune on the other hand, had hit maximum capacity for emotions for the day, and could only take everything in stride from there on out. He had hallucinated, started up his interior decorating skills again, been attacked by the White Fang, nearly knocked out, gained some form of power, had his first kiss with the woman who was currently under his care, had his second kiss with her, and accidentally saw his male roommate wearing one of her dresses. As far as Jaune was concerned, he was done for today.

But Mercury did look incredibly fabulous in the dress, and Jaune would be lying if he said he did not enjoy the sight. 

Ozpin sat at his desk, and decided to take a look around his pristine and precise campus. 

The girls were enjoying themselves after dinner, which was of course lovely to see. Oobleck was giving Roman Torchwick a full and rather rapid briefing and debriefing about the arrangement in one of the back rooms, and speaking of his little reformation project. The white haired wizard was completely certain that the ginger vagabond was not listening, or that Oobleck was wittering it out too quickly for the poor man to hear. 

Jaune knocked thrice and entered at the permission of his headmaster’s voice from the desk. Upon entering the lemon blonde saw Ozpin not even get up from his throne, rather instead simply take another sip of his coffee. 

“Headmaster Ozpin? I need to speak with you” Jaune told the magician as he strode into the office with equal parts purpose and drained energy. The day had been so long, and so much ad happened, the poor paladin was certain he could not take anymore developments with his superior’s plan. He simply wanted to inform Ozpin and then head to the infirmary to see Cinder again, or to the dorm to check on Merc. 

“Yes, hello Mr. Arc. Take a seat. How can I help you?” Ozpin replied cheerfully, or rather methodically to Jaune’s ears, knowing that the next few minutes were going to be just wonderful.

“Well, it’s been a long day. Just gonna take a second for myself. Sorry.” Jaune informed his headmaster, flopping down in a chair in front of Ozpin’s desk and letting what felt like steam escape his chest through his mouth and nose, finally letting the last lull of stress go. It felt so good to finally sit down and take his load off.

The edge of Ozpin’s mouth twitched in amusement. “Well, I am sorry to hear that. I hear that Aura exchange can help with such an issue,” the omnipresent and genius headmaster let slip with a curve of his smile. Of course he knew everything. Ozpin was like a hivemind, a high power that somehow knew and saw everything. 

“Aura what?” Jaune said, looking up from hanging his head over the back of the headrest.

“Aura exchange. It is a process where the different auras of two people enter each other’s bodies, causing a variety of effects, such as increased energy, the cure of minor chronic illnesses, and emotional connection.” For a second, his smile fell a degree. “I sent you an email earlier, and it mentioned such an act.”

Jaune pulled out his cellphone, and looked through the emails, and saw that Ozpin indeed had sent him such an email after he saw the apartment earlier today. Remembering that he had felt better after what had happened between Cinder and him this morning, and then again when he had tried to heal her, Jaune decide it was time to start asking some questions.

“Ozpin, about this aura-whatever process, can I ask something?” The lemon blonde paladin sat up in his chair, and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “When this process happens... are hallucinations common?”

Ozpin’s smile came back, and in a big way. “Ah, so you have already conducted a bit of research with Miss Fall then? They’re not very common. Only when two people have such a feeling for each other, you see. Then, it usually becomes more than feelings, as I am sure you have already considered. It shouldn’t be an issue with you and Cind-” He cut himself off as he saw Jaune’s face become truly pale.

“Jaune... is there something you need to tell me?” Ozpin asked, worry growing behind the calm, brown eyes.

The tired knight started to laugh, before covering his eyes and leaning his head back once again. Suddenly, his laughing stopped before his smile disappeared, and he responded “Ozpin, I’ve had a long day. We were attacked by White Fang and they hurt Cinder. I found out a secret of Mercury’s. And I think I exchanged Aura with her twice. Once before you even sent me the email.”

Ozpin was shocked. He had not felt shocked in years. Everything he did, every plan he made, it was always perfectly calculated. He had thought that Cinder would offer to exchange aura with him after reading the email, at which point Jaune’s healing aura would begin to affect her with greater strength, perhaps helping in the reformation. Not only had Jaune accidentally stumbled on this before Ozpin had sent the email, but they were perfect for each other? Jaune’s head sis a certain degree of melting at the conundrum.

“Jaune, when? How? Give me the details of the exchange.” Ozpin said forcefully, leaning forward, his hands on his desk.

Jaune sighed once more, wishing this day could finally end. “The first was during the airship over into the city. I was feeling sick, and I think Cinder tried to use Aura manipulation to heal my nausea. She put her aura into me, and I think that my aura automatically tried to fill the imbalance in her. I hallucinated. I was at home. It was Oumas. I was drinking hot chocolate.” Ozpin nodded. “And Cinder was with me under the blanket.” Ozpin froze. “We were going to kiss, but then it faded. Later, after Cinder got hurt, I tried to do what she did, since it actually fixed my air sickness. It happened again. This time, I was laying in a field with her. We kissed, we opened our eyes, and we were kissing in real life.” He would give a kingdom for a bed.

“Jaune, are you telling me you shared your first kiss with the woman who was planning on killing me?”

Jaune looked directly at Ozpin, eyes wide. He tried to think of an excuse, say there was some kind of misunderstanding, or anything to try to fight against what he had just said, but all that came out was; “How did you know it was my first kiss?”

Now it was Ozpin’s turn to sigh before revealing a small smile. “Well, I know many things, Jaune. But don’t worry.” He stood up, and gave Jaune a cup of extra hot chocolate he usually saved for Glynda, but he had remembered she was busy with her assignment watching the former felon girls after he had made it. “I’m not taking you off the assignment. Just be careful around her, understand?”

Jaune took the drink, sipped it, and smiled at the memory of both the dream-like state, and the apartment. “I understand. At least the Aura Exchange explains why I could use her fire manipulation, right?”

Jaune heard something shatter, and saw Ozpin standing above a broken mug, where a puddle of brown liquid was slowly spreading out on the floor. “Jaune. What do you mean, you could use her fire manipulation?”

Jaune put down the mug he was drinking on Ozpin’s desk. “Uh. During, the uh. The fight. With the White Fang. Someone was going to hit her with a pipe. I grabbed it. I felt fire in my body. I actually started to melt it in my grip, like I saw Cinder do when you showed me the video of her when you were informing me. I felt this power in me, and when I punch someone, it burned them.” He felt worry, even in his tired form, start to crawl back to him. “But Aura Exchange, right?”

Ozpin shook his head, his eyes turning glazed with thought. “No, Jaune. No, this isn’t right. Yes, you should be able to use her power, but not in her form. Like imagine you have a weak battery, and she has a strong one,” Ozpin began to explain, holding up his hands as he began to attempt to mime it out for a visibly drained Jaune Arc. “And imaging you have a blue light bulb, and she has a red one. What you should be able to do is plug yourself into her battery, and make your light brighter. What it shouldn’t do is make your light red.”

Jaune took a second, absorbing this information. “What you’re saying is... I shouldn’t be able to use her semblance?”

“Exactly. It just doesn’t make sense. Except. Jaune, what is your semblance?” Ozpin said, with an air of urgency.

“I don’t have one. Never have.” Jaune replied, neglecting to mention that his Aura had only been unlocked a bit less than a year ago.

Ozpin sat down, and let his entire body relax. Of course he, of all people, would have this ability. “Jaune, I suspect that your lack of a semblance might actually be a semblance in-of itself.” Jaune’s eyes grew wide. He had been trying everything he could to discover it. Putting himself in danger, pushing his limits, even trying random stuff just to see if it could be something like telekinesis, or talking to animals.

“I suspect that you have the ability to borrow the semblance of people you have a deep emotional connection with. Not of blood, or friendship, but of romance. After all, you were only able to do this while protecting Cinder, before you two had kissed, correct?” Which was met by a nod.

“Well, nothing is set in stone, not yet. Meet with me sometime in the next week. We have to experiment. And Cinder won’t be done for another hour. I suggest you get some dinner from the cafeteria for the both of you before it closes. Would that be agreeable?” The emerald man in the ivory tower leaned forward, and made a bridge with his hands, placing his chin upon it. After Jaune nodded once more, Ozpin closed his eyes.

“Then I will see you in a few days, Mr. Arc. And don’t forget to close the door on the way out.”

Jaune ran through a mental checklist, all the things he had left to do before he could finally retire for the day and return to his dreams, to recharge for no doubt the next day of inexplicable developments in Ozpin’s grand game of chess and chequers. It was constantly exhausting and even a little laborious sometimes. But the past hours had made things a little easier to cope with. Cinder had made it easier. 

Walking into the room once again, Mercury was sitting on his bed, wearing the false Haven Uniform that they had either stolen or had been provided for them. He seemed to be a bit more shy than usual, and Jaune felt for him. It was an incredible thing for Mercury to even still be there in the room, he had just been caught in Cinder’s dress and was feeling more than very self conscious about his body and his mind. 

No one had ever seen him in women’s clothes before. Not even Cinder or Emerald. Nor his family. No one, ever. 

“Mercury.” Jaune said as he drew the grey eyed boy’s attention.

Before Mercury could speak, Jaune held up a hand. “I’m only going to ask questions, and you’re going to answer them. Sorry if I’m being rude. Just tired. Long day. Hard day. Please.” Mercury, not wanting to make the conversation and explanation any harder than it had to be, closed his mouth, restrained his want to speak out, and nodded. He instantly saw that Jaune was grateful.

“First. Does Cinder know?” He said, walking over to his bed. Mercury shook his head. “Second. Do you have any clothes on your own?” Mercury shook his head again as Jaune sat down, while the blonde noticed tears forming in his roommate’s eyes. Giving the last sigh of the night, he asked one more question. “Do you want to tell me about your legs?” 

Mercury shook his head.

Nodding, Jaune stood and pulled out his phone. “I need to make a call, be right back,” the lemon blonde settled, dialing a number, and walking out the door into the hallway. For a second, Mercury was petrified. Why did Jaune need to make a call now? Who was it to? Cinder? Ozpin? Ironwood himself? But why did Jaune call him cute if he was about to rat him out? Unless, the call was not to someone Mercury knew.

“Mercury!”

Merc snapped out of his stupor, and saw Jaune standing in the doorway, holding a hand over the receiver on his scroll. “What size are you?” The knight asked.

The grey haired teen was a mixture of confusion and fear. Of all questions, his size? “Uhh... 38.” As Jaune turned to head back into the hallway he stopped and looked back into the room. “Men’s or Women’s?” Was he asking about wearing dresses? “Men’s. Men’s sizes.” Jaune nodded and went back out into the hallway for a few minutes more.

Mercury was surprised his anxiety had all but evaporated in Jaune’s presence. After the blonde boy walked back in, he tossed the scroll back on the bed before falling down on top of it, laying face down on his pillows for a few seconds.

“Jaune... what was all that about?” Mercury asked, still sitting on his bed. Jaune turned on his side, and Merc saw he was about ten minutes from being in a deep, deep sleep. He yawned before responding.

“I called up my sisters. I have seven of them, if you remember from a week ago. They’re going to send some more clothing. They should be here in a week and you can use them whenever you want, is that alright?” The caring and just all around perfect, new Jaune told Merc as he turned onto his back, and put his hands over his head. “I told you that you looked cute in that dress.”

‘Did... Did Jaune just get some clothing for me to wear? No questions?’ Mercury could only try and fail to open his mouth to say something, anything at all in his confusion and overwhelming gratitude. He wasn’t sure if it was going to be thanks, beration, or just screams at someone knowing his secret. 

Jaune stood up and simply said “Dammit.”

“I need to get dinner and check on Cinder. You want anything?” Jaune asked, stretching in order to try to get some energy back into his body. 

“Uh, no. I... already ate. I’m fine.”

The lemon blonde paladin shrugged, and left the room, unaware to Mercury, his own heart had started to beat and become warm at the thought of what Jaune had just done for him. And at the thought of just Jaune himself, unconsciously, Mercury felt like, even this late at night, the sun was shining on him, and it was doing so more than it ever had in his life.


	8. The View From The Afternoon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Velvet decides to act on her knowledge of the girls' relationship and finds them in the library, Upon speaking to them and learning about how their relationship works, she asks them all out on a double date with herself and Coco. After organising the date with some help from Ren, all the girls date at a Karaoke Bar in Vale, where Velvet finds herself feeling emotions for the six girls she hasn't felt since the day she met Coco in the Emerald Forest.

From General James Ironwood of the Atlas Military to Headmaster Hans Ozpin of Beacon Academy.

Ozpin,

I fear I may have made a grave mistake. Strum Schnee called in a few days ago for a request, to discharge his daughter, Winter Schnee, so that she may return home for a corporate marriage. I had no choice. The man practically singlehandedly funds the specialists. He provides massive amounts of nearly free dust for our weaponry as well. To deny a request from him may as well be shooting myself in the foot. And the foot that I still have, not the prosthetic.

As expected, Winter did not take well to this. I discharged her, as promised, but I could not command her to return home. I expect she will be coming to the one place on Remnant that has family separate from her father that she can trust. Beacon Academy, where I believe her sister Weiss Schnee is still enrolled.

Officially, I must say that she must not be allowed to remain there for too long. That is a place of learning, and study. Not of family issues and irresponsible adults.  
Unofficially, I beg you Ozpin. Take care of her. She has nowhere else to go. Strum is not an evil man, but he is a cold and uncaring one. I do not know what her childhood with him was like, and I am glad for that fact, both for the reason that I do not wish to strangle another man to death, and for the reason that I cannot help but feel I am saving myself some emotional turmoil.  
The choice is yours.

Kampf mit Ehre,

James Ironwood

With a deep breath, Velvet raised her hand, formed it into a fist, and prepared to knock on Team RWBY’s door. Letting it out in a sigh, she lowered her fist once again, like she had been doing for the past ten minutes. 

The hare faunus had never been good with talking to people, due to the excessive bullying because of her long and cute ears, the only real people she had a proper talkative connection with was Coco, her girlfriend, and the rest of Team CFVY, and even Ruby Rose from time to time. So when the Velveteen Rabbit and her fashionista girlfriend had accidentally heard of the unusual arrangement, her girlfriend had asked her to fully inspect the nature of their school mates’ relationship.

Velv held one hand in another, and rubbed the knuckles of her right hand with her thumb. She felt comfortable enough around Ruby, but that was because the little rose was as shy as Velvet was. Another deep breath entered her lungs as the nerves surrounded her, it was all a little silly in her elder mind, it was just talking to people, nothing tremendous, but she was still nervous. 

All she needed to do was knock. Ruby would probably answer, and she could talk to Ruby. Little Ruby Rose was nice, polite, even adorable to Velvet’s warm brown eyes; she could also talk to Blake if the feline faunus answered the door. The bunny just felt a certain cold air between her and Weiss and was a little too intimidated when put to the blonde brawler, she had also never spoken to them at all before. 

Before she could actually bring herself to knock however, the jet black hair with the purple strand of Lie Ren popped out of the adjacent dorm, followed by his face. 

“They’re all at the library,” he said swiftly. 

Velvet stood on end, along with her tall bunny ears as she made a small cringing face. She was half scared stiff and half relieved she didn’t have to knock. “Thank you!”

Striding into the library, and following the sidewall, Velvet eventually came to the back right corner of the library, where people could sit in peace and read or study, where the brigands and vagabonds of Team CRDN would not disturb them. She felt her heart grow warm at the scene before her.

In the corner, there were a variety of bean bags, old and new, small and large and all bundled together like one communal bed. On top of it, the six girls leaned in varying positions. 

Blake sat, leaning her back against a stacked beanbag with a book in one hand, while the other stroked the hair of the blonde brawler who was laying in her lap. Yang was enjoying the feeling of the slender fingers moving through her locks while she was doing the same to Nora, who had her head on her stomach, and was currently fast asleep to Yang’s warm aura. Leaning over the beanbag and reading over Blake’s shoulder was Ruby who was very much enjoying the ninth book in the Ninja’s Of Love series. Behind her, was Pyrrha holding a very embarrassed and blushing Weiss Schnee in her lap, a book being read by both of them at the same time. Well, more by one than the other, while the other was hoping that the larger girl wouldn’t notice just how warm the large bust pressed against her back was making her. There was no way Weiss would complain, she adored Pyrrha’s bust, more so than she would care to admit. 

Looking up from her book, forcing Ruby to do the same, Blake smiled at her fellow faunus, giving her slender and black, feline ears an adorable twitch. Velvet had known Blake was a faunus for a few months, ever since the first major incident with the nefarious Roman Torchwick, and was actually the first to know, after Blake’s own team. 

“It’s good to see you, Velvet,” Blake said quietly as she put a finger in the book and closed it, marking her place in the rather steamy section of the book, the same genre and style of literary erotica she had grown addicted to over the years. 

“Yeah, I knew you and your team were staying over summer, but we haven’t gotten the opportunity to talk since summer started,” Ruby developed, just as quietly. Upon the start of the summer, the level of noise in the library had been a little relaxed, but most people who stayed there over the break still prefered to keep their voices low. 

“Come on over, what’s up?” The tiny ginger in the lap of the blonde perked up with her usual glee.

Weiss and Pyrrha’s heads suddenly peeked out from behind the beanbag, and the pair shuffled around to see Velvet also. Both gave a smile to let her know she had two more to her audience, knowing that the bunny could be skittish at the best of times. 

Sitting in front of them, feeling herself start to wilt under the gazes of six girls she admittedly all found attractive for varying reasons, she knew she had to speak before her confidence ran out on her. 

“I wanted to...” Velvet looked down and began twiddling her thumbs. “I wanted to talk about something Coco and I had accidentally heard about you.” Looking up, she saw that the smiles had dropped from the girls’ faces, and all six of them were staring wide eyed at her, including Nora who had woken up. Clearing her throat, Pyrrha spoke carefully and neutrally. 

“Velvet. I don’t want to seem...” she began to move her hands open palmed in circles around each other, “mean or hostile. But I think it would be best for everyone if you just got to your intended point as fast as possible,” The beautiful and auburn haired hoplite asked the rabbit, causing Blake, Yang, and Weiss to nod while Nora stayed laying down.

Clearing her throat, Velvet finally managed to began squeaking out what she wanted to say. “I, We... Might’ve overheard you guys talking about your romantic arrangement,” she peeped and closed her eyes, and grasped her hands together. “I wanted to come and tell you because I didn’t want to hide anything from any of you. We both accept your relationship with each other, and-”

Velvet’s eyes shot open to see Pyrrha holding a hand over the her own mouth, holding a finger in front of her own. Removing the hand from over Velvet’s mouth, she gestured to lower her volume, looking behind the small rabbit at the rest of the library, checking to see if no one was close enough to hear her sudden outburst. Sighing with relief, bright green locked on to dark dark brown and Pyrrha opened her elegant mouth to speak.

“Velvet. I appreciate you coming to us so honestly and earnestly, and I think we all appreciate your acceptance of our relationship,” the auburn beauty admitted as she suddenly saw Velvet’s eyes widen. Pyrrha could not help herself but gasp from the blatant cuteness and adorable features from the bunny. Her brown eyes and quaint smile, her whole face, it was simply quite beautiful. 

“I now realize that you were not aware of Nora and I’s involvement in this arrangement.” After she felt a small electrically charged punch make contact with the aura surrounding her arm, the mask slipped a couple more inches as herself annoyance grew with each passing second. “And now I’ve also just revealed that we are all dating each other haven’t I? Drat.”

“Relax sweetie, there’s no way she didn’t know already, relax babe,” Nora chimed as she stirred still on Yang’s buxom bust, like more comfortable pillows than the ones in the dormroom. 

All the girls loves Yang’s bust, as well as Blake’s and Pyrrha’s. Ruby of course thought Weiss’s was more than a little cute, having less volume than the rest but still looking and feeling amazing. 

As Pyrrha covered her eyes with a slender and toned hand, Weiss patted her on one of her broad shoulders, and Yang sat up, which forced Nora to slide down into her lap, where she happily readjusted herself and snuggled back into a comfortable position in her muscled thighs. Nora was always as cute as she was funny and bombastic, tying with Ruby on her levels of adorableness with her interactions and then with Yang as far as her outgoingness to love her girlfriends was concerned. They had all reached and even transcended such a deep level of connectivity and understanding, it was as if they all knew what the other was feeling at all times. The bombastic blonde, clothed in a black t-shirt with her emblem emblazed on the right side of the chest with a pair of basketball shorts and sandals, began stroking Nora’s luscious and luminous ginger hair once again, trickling her fingers through the silky knots and making her almost purr like Blake would to the same treatment. Yang could always make Blake purr the fastest among all the girls, followed marginally by Weiss, then Ruby and Pyrrha tackling the faunus together. The blonde let out a content hum, thinking all the while. 

“So, you and Coco know. Anyone else?” She finally piped up, leaning up a little and disturbing the lazy ginger again. Nora soon repositioned herself in Yang’s lap and relaxed once more. She was tuckered out for some unknown reason, and as Weiss quickly glanced upon Yang’s question, she blushed at how adorable her hammer girl looked. 

Velvet shook her head from side to side, afraid to anger one of the few people at Beacon stronger than her own team leader, that and the fact that she found them all quite beautiful and found herself not wanting to stop looking on what they all had between them. She was slowly finding herself wanting to remain, and then the poor bunny wished for her girlfriend to be with her. Velvet wanted Coco to join them and wrap the faunus in her gunner arms, holding her tightly as they joined the six girlfriends in a daze as the summer heat blazed in even more, passed all the fans and air conditioning vents. 

Yang, watching carefully, gave a small nod. “Good. That’s good. I can handle the stares and whispers. Got enough of them in Patch when I hit puberty. But I don’t know about anyone else,” she raised her face to the ceiling, setting her own mind at ease. It was a big thing, a monumental thing in fact, that those who knew about the arrangement, were only people the girls could all trust collectively. Meaning, they hardly wanted the undesirable Cardin Winchester knowing about it, it was the fastest way to spark yet another feud between himself, and Pyrrha. The blonde let loose a long breath, and returned her eyes to Velvet, still standing nervously still before the auburn huntress and the worry still rife in her deep and silky eyes. “So, was there anything else you wanted to talk to us about? Because, like, we were kinda enjoying some down time,” Yang continued, closing her eyes again as she set her head back and onto the lap of her shadowy and onyx haired feline darling, knotting her strong and articulated fingers into Nora’s smooth locks again, acting as if she was in a paradise. 

To Velvet’s alcohol eyes the buxom blonde was in paradise. Yang Xiao Long had her mane of blonde hair nested in the lap of a gorgeous young faunus woman who would love nothing more than for her fiery girlfriend’s head to remain exactly where it lay. On top of that, Yang also had the loving and snoozing head of her shorter, ginger hammer girl, resting gently in her own lap while she braided her fingers through the short orange locks, slowly lulling the booper into a proper sleep in the middle of the library. All while the oceanic eyes of the white haired heiress looked at the three with a content swooning look, thankful that was together with five girls of such beauty and divergent personality. 

This was when Velvet felt something itch at her, nagged even, and more forceful than before. It was a desire, and she couldn’t believe what it wanted her to do. Something that was going to cost her. It wasn't going to cost her lien, but it was going to cause some punishment with Coco that night. There was also the chance it wasn’t going to be the fun kind. The rabbit faunus lost all nerves about her and indulged the voice in her head, the one that had been feeding her scandalous thoughts and instructions since she had seen the six girlfriends all together, looking amazing together and the most loving sight the hare had ever seen. 

“Well, actually, there was just one more thing. It has to do with your relationship. Are you all free soon? Maybe you could join Coco and me on a date sometime?” The poor and innocent faunus asked, not knowing the incredibly large barrage of metaphorical bullets she had opened herself up from her beautiful Coco. 

Weiss looked right at Velvet and responded to her in an extremely perky voice, far out of her usual emotional capacity that Velvet had seen. But then again, she hadn’t seen the polyamorous Weiss Schnee, not what the collective love of five girlfriends could do to her. 

“We would love to go Velvet! Tell Coco it’s a date!”

“What do you mean we’re taking them on a double date?” Miss Coco Adel boomed. 

She was absolutely stunned at the latest development, and to her, what a development it was indeed. She had instructed her adorable faunus partner to simply talk with the girlfriends to inform them that their arrangement would be kept in confidence, and Velvet had returned now telling Coco they had to take the girls out for a double date for some reason the faunus was holding back. Miss Adel was perplexed and also frustrated, but she could never stay too mad at her partner for too long. 

Velvet had anticipated this, she knew it was going to happen. That did not mean, however, that she was prepared for it. It also did not mean she wanted it to happen. Coco was mad at her, but not furious, there was no way Coco would ever let herself become inexplicably furious with a woman so innocent and adorable as Velvet.

Coco was bent over, staring at Velvet a few inches from her face, one heeled foot tapping impatiently on the carpet, trying her best not give into the bunny’s cute look of inexplicable innocence. Velvet was sat on the bed in front of the fashionista, her ears bent over her eyes, and her hands in her lap, her mellow and whiskey coloured eyes almost drawn to tears from her spur of the moment idea.

“I mean, I get the concept. I do. The idea of us two going out with the four of-”

“Six.” Velvet quickly corrected her girlfriend with her hand held upward and close to her breast like a paw, a small rabbit’s paw.

Coco sighed at her girlfriend’s interjection, standing up straight and rubbing her eyes under her designer aviator sunglasses, of course she even wore them indoors. The only time she had ever taken them off was at Velvet’s behest to try on her reading glasses in the dark one night. Her eyes were pretty sensitive to light, so she wore her aviators non stop, even at night. 

“Yes, Velvet. Going out with the six of them. On a date,” Coco groaned, rubbing the bridge of her nose above the shades slipping down it. 

She pulled out her scroll and opened a hidden and locked file that mapped out the relationships at Beacon, Coco and Velvet had stayed up all night some time ago laughing like the schoolgirls they were and taking deep note of who was who, after all it was rather Coco’s duty to know as one of the ‘it girls’ in the third year of the academy. For a long time, she had connected Pyrrha with the blonde novice that she, for some reason, had chosen to take under her wing since their little encounter in the Emerald Forest. She had done the same for the bubbly ginger and Lie Ren, but had disconnected that line when she had learned that the ninja she had dreamed of using as a model for a line of male clothing was actually asexual, and was currently not in a relationship with anyone.

As she drew lines between all of Team RWBY along with the auburn Mistrilian and the orange haired Valian, she felt her annoyance rise in her throat again. Please tell me you have some lien to cover this, or they’re paying too because I really don’t want to have to pay for eight of us on a bender,” the heavy gunner asked the wilting rabbit faunus, who also pulled out her scroll to quickly check her bank balance and ensure that Coco wouldn’t have to boil her blood or even worse, ask Fox for a small loan for the night. 

In truth Coco was more out of her usual mood from the fact that she didn’t know the six girls better than she did. She knew them moderately well, catching Yang and Blake at a bar downtown, bringing the little ginger booper along with them for a binge. Nora had gotten vocal that night when she found out that she could the rather attractive, at least to Coco’s rather picky standards, mix together maple schnapps and whipped cream flavored Vodka. When Nora had awoken the next day, she had forgotten everything from the previous twenty four hours, including the drink itself, which everyone was relieved about.

But that was nearly the extent of Coco’s interactions with any of them. She had only waved to Pyrrha and everything she knew about Ruby was secondhand from Velvet. And of course, the reputation of Schnee Dust and the notorious Sturm Schnee spoke for Weiss herself. 

The expression of futile regret and failure was rife on the rabbit’s face when Coco peered up from her dating app, she’d just finished creating the web of the six girls, interested to see if anyone else would find their hearts or libidos caught up in it. Velvet was weeping slightly, the tears not falling from her chocolate brown eyes but they were certainly there, making the poor adorable hare sniff and blubber. 

“Velvet!” Coco yelled, and felt sparks of relief fly from her warm and flushed face when Velvet finally looked up, tears in her eyes. Coco quickly wrapped her faunus in her strong and warming arms, trying to cuddle the stress and sadness out of her. The heavy gunner instantly felt her regret swell in her throat and beautifully made up eyes, especially as Velvet very sheepishly wrapped her own, frailer arms around Coco’s waist, like a small child needing a hug. 

“Look at me,” Coco called out to her girl, before releasing her from her arms and holding the back of her neck. In the emotionally fuelled rush the bunny ears stood on their ends again. They hardly stuck for long, just as the headstrong gunner with the attitude leaned in forward, clashing Velvet’s trembling lips with her own, swirling the milk chocolate taste of her girlfriend’s lips with the slightly stale tea from her own. It made for quite a potent mixture and made Coco linger a little. 

Pulling away things soon melted and calmed as Yatsu, who was in the kitchen area soon silently left the room like the offset giant he was, leaving Fox however, tenderly reading his book in braille with his music player in his ears, overloading his daredevil senses and sending him into another world, a completely different state of existing for the moment. Nonetheless Coco cared not if Fox was in the room, she was an extremely non-private person when it came to displaying her affection. Velvet had taken her fair share of slaps to her firm little rear when both Yatsu and Fox were around her and her girlfriend. 

“It’s okay sweetie,” Coco cooed, embracing Velvet closely again with all her caring might. She realised that her tone had of course been to harsh, and the stress had of course gotten to her a little. The thought of having to now endure a date that she was probably least looking forward to out of the eight and having to probably pay for herself and her lover was a tad too much on top of the heat and her prescription. 

It was one of the only times that Coco ever lost her nerve, when her senses were in an intensified bloom. 

“It’s fine. I was just a bit annoyed. It’s the money and the light, and hell it’s me too,” she dabbled, wrapping the faunus into an even softer and longer embrace, trying to suppress the tremors that were still dancing throughout her body. “I’m not mad. It’s okay. I’m still here for you.” She squeezed tighter. “I’m still here. I’m not leaving. Dust, I’m really sorry Velv, dust I’m a moron sometimes.”

Velvet’s rabbity like squeaking was less than a faint whisper but it made Coco melt into her hold as her long and adorable bunny ears began to flop and wiggle slightly. 

“Coco,” the faunus mouthed, looking up at her heavy gunner with steamed up shades from her own small tears. “It’s okay, I have money, but I should have asked you if you wanted to go on the date before organising it,” she breathed, her face flushed from sadness and then flushed from her embarrassment and signature shyness around her senpai and girlfriend. “I’m sorry Coco.”

Coco didn’t know much about Velvet’s past. She knew that abandonment was prominent within that fog, however and Coco did see it the first time she saw the skittish, shy, wallflower in the Emerald Forest, which had made her Coco’s partner for the next four years. Even now, after they had been dating for over a year officially, Velvet still had the tendency to spiral downward when she was feeling guilty and regretful. Coco wasn’t just her girlfriend, she was the hand to drag her out of the darkness. And the heavy gunner knew that. 

“It’s okay. I love you, Velvet. I’m sorry for losing my temper.” She wiped the tears from her faunus’s cheeks after they had begun to leak out when she opened her eyes. “Just...” She grabbed Velvet’s hands in hers and stroked the back of her hands with her thumbs, smiling when she felt the faunus’s hands squeeze her’s lightly. “Just maybe ask me out on the date next time hot stuff, okay? Do that, for me baby?” 

Velvet smiled at her teary compliments and leaned in for a brief but warm and tickling kiss, getting that blend of chocolate tea herself and liking it a lot.

For a few seconds, they just sat like that, not caring about time, or who would walk into the room, just about the mental stability of the person they were in love with. Coco’s relief finally flooded her body when she heard a small, gentle, barely there 

“Okay.” Velvet let slip, with a small smile on her face. 

Standing up, she pulled Velvet up from the bed with her, wrapping her arms around her, and just felt her heartbeat next to hers. Finally, she released her, took off her sunglasses, and wiped her own eyes. Taking a deep breath, the cocky smile returned to her face, and she stretched her arms, feeling her shoulders pop with the removal of stress.

“Now that that’s done, let’s talk about destination. Where should we take everyone?” The fashionista asked, a bright smile on her face as well as her usual critique bloom and perfect aura, the pinnacle of beauty to her faunus girlfriend. 

“I know Nora likes Karaoke Bars.” Said Ren, who had just walked into the room seemingly out of completely nowhere. Both girls stared at the boy as he went towards Fox’s desk and began to search through the drawers for some item or something. They were still too in shock of his presence to start wondering what he was looking for. 

Shaking her head to make sure this wasn’t a sudden case of hallucinations, Coco felt a wash of sudden and almost annoyed confusion when the fairly attractive and very asexual shadow teen was still there when she opened her eyes. “What are you doing here?” She asked rather incredulously, he had pretty much interrupted her moment with the shy and reserved faunus on her bed. 

Looking up from the desk, Ren moved and leaned against it, half sitting on the edge. “Fox asked me to come get his scroll charger. But you’re taking Nora, Pyrrha, and Team RWBY out on a date in a week or so I’m guessing, from Pyrrha’s swooning at the dorm room.”

Velvet, who was even more confused than Coco at the sudden appearance of this stranger, had forgotten to be shy. “Yes, we are, but, I’m sorry, who are you?” 

All three people in the room heard the buzzing of a scroll on vibrate, and Ren held up a finger as he looked through a rather long text message.

“Looks like they want to go dancing too. Especially Yang and Blake. Ruby wants to take Weiss just to see how she moves on the dance floor.” He looked up, shrugging, and returning to the desk. 

Lie Ren was certainly a character, he had always been so shy, but now, upon being as free as ever, he had embraced his tongue and began speaking and flowing about the academy like a regular teen. He was even smiling, and his lips were quite quaint, good and nice to look at from the bed, Coco especially thought. She had always prided herself on only being attracted to women and the most attractive of men, and Ren would have probably made the list, if only he could. 

Velvet felt the rare emotion of annoyance, stomping her foot, and placing her hands on her hips. “Yes, thank you for that, but let me ask again. Who. Are. You?”

Pausing in his search, Ren suddenly stood up ramrod straight, turning around on his heel, and bending into a deep bow. “I apologize, to the both of you. My name is Lie Ren,” he introduced himself properly as opposed to waving in passing as he had done like Pyrrha, before rising from his bow, “and I’m Nora’s best friend. She’s been basically Live-Scrolling her relationship to me for the past forty eight hours.” 

As his scroll buzzed again, he laughed, causing both Coco and Velvet to look at him with quizzical stares, which he responded against by holding up his scroll and explaining. His laugh was completely something unexpected, it had tone and pitch and was really quite adorable, and of course, completely cute for his person. 

“Nora put an ice cube on Weiss’s back. She did it to see what would happen, but Weiss hasn’t noticed, and it hasn’t melted at all. She and Ruby are seeing how long it takes for her to notice.” He gave one more small chuckle before typing a quick reply and putting the scroll away. “So, did that give you any ideas?” Ren asked politely, as he finally pulled out a long white cord, pocketing it in his sleeves, preparing to leave.

Coco, smiling, scratched her chin. “In fact, it might’ve given me one or two..”

Ten Days Later...

“Look, all I’m saying is that I’d have the advantage at close range. Yes, you have the scythe mode, but I’m way more maneuverable up close.”

Ruby huffed at her older sister, who she was currently on their date with. Well, her and four other girls. And then the other two girls they were going on their double date with.

“But I’m still at the advantage at medium and long range, meaning Crescent Rose is an all around better weapon!” Ruby replied, strutting down with her hands in her pockets. All the girls were dressed differently for their date, the little red out of her riding hood, instead opting to wear a pair of black jeans and converse sneakers, with a long sleeved red button up collared shirt, paired with a black bowtie and black suspenders. Ever since she had fully come out to not just Yang, but everyone including herself, she felt more comfortable wearing not so feminine clothing. 

Ruby enjoyed very much being gay, and not the same definition as her elder sister. She enjoyed the fact that she was only, and could only be attracted to other girls, it made her feel slightly attracted to herself, and more comfortable in knowing she would never have to ‘improve’ or change herself for the opinion of some man. It was a freedom unlike any other, and she felt simply gorgeous in her less feminine attire, she felt strong and powerful, very much a magnet to her girlfriends, particularly Yang, Blake, and of course, Pyrrha, who all found her more butch ensemble simply irresistable. They found little Rubles to be adorable and yet powerful.

“I wouldn’t go that far, lil sis. Ember Celica still has kinetic blasts, and they can be fired at medium range faster than you, and with a bigger area of effect. So, I got you beat two out of three.” Yang strode next to her. The white booty shorts barely covered any of her legs, but fully covered her well exercised and plump rear, making it even more inducing to slap or grab to the smoky feline faunus who’d left with them. The shirt she wore was yellow, and had an image of a simple black cat on it, with the words 'Tournee du Chat Noir de Rodolptte Salis' to the right and below it. A small, midriff length varsity jacket was put on over it, making her look contemporary and with her booty shorts, ripe for dancing and flirting with by all five of her girls friends, and she was completely distracting to her lesbian sister easily eyeing her up next to her as they walked. 

“Well, I have a combination rifle, spear, sword, returnable shield, and the spear form has long range capability. Does that not mean I have both of you beat in all three areas?” The redheaded goddess, Pyrrha Nikos strode down the streets with them on the lovely, warm Valian evening. Her dress was similar to that of the one she wore during the Vytal dance, just before the festival was cancelled, with a lower neck, and a slightly higher hem.

Again Ruby found her attraction dominating her mental focus, as Pyrrha flawlessly inserted herself between her small frame and the buxom cyberpunk blonde with the metallic arm. The redhead and the blonde were simply ravishing in their date clothes and to little Ruby, her head filled with lusty and sultry thoughts already, it was almost torturous to know it would be hours before she could tear the clothes from her girlfriends’ backs. 

She was seriously hoping that Coco and Velvet had an entertaining plan, and that they didn’t look as gorgeous as Ruby’s party. 

“By that logic, I have the strongest weapon out of all of you.” Weiss interjected. Her classic white dress and combat skirt had been replaced that warm evening with a more casual, white short sundress with a thin black cardigan over her frail and yet bold shoulders. Her small purse didn’t hold much besides her and Ruby’s scrolls and her Schnee Dust Company, platinum credit card. 

“It has strength at all three lengths, and doesn’t have a one shot long distance limit like your’s does Pyrrha dear.” She burst as she gave Pyrrha a small bump on her hip, also sliding into the fold. Pyrrha was currently intertwining her arms with Ruby, enjoying displaying her relationship in public and a little giggly at the rather large height difference between them, despite the fact that little Nora was even smaller than the lesbian scythe wielder. It had taken some talk between the six of them, but in the end, they had agreed to not hide their relationship in public, they deemed the lack of affection not worth the lack of glances. If anyone judged them, they weren’t even worth the time of day from the six. 

“Well, actually, I think I have all of you beat,” the adorable accent of Velvet Scarlatina sounded from a few metres away.

Coco walked arm in arm with her faunus girlfriend, who’s bright yellow sundress seemed to glow in the dark between streetlights. The sidewalks held the occasional person, but people weren’t out and about yet. Once night truly fell, and the clubs opened, the streets would be paved with flowery and sparkling ensembles of men, women and faunus alike, all out to drink their fills and initiate their benders, all on their own mission to have the best time they could. 

Coco, wearing a simply leg slit black dress, had a prideful smile on. She loved showing off her Velvet, even when the little bun-bun was acting shy and retained after making her challenging remark. 

“I know the lot of you haven’t seen Velv’s weapon, but trust me when I say it can outperform all of yours, easily,” the heavy gunner taunted with a cocky tone, giving her little hare a small kiss on the ear before adjusting her sunglasses, even in the dark she needed them. 

“Well, I don’t know about all of you, but while Magnhild may not have the specific flexibilities of Miló and Akoúo̱, Myrtenaster, Crescent Rose, and the Ember Celica, I more than make up for it with my semblance, you pipsqueaks couldn’t ever match up to my ‘electrifying presence in the arena.”

For a few seconds, all seven other girls turned and stared at the shortest among them. While they couldn’t easily forget that the t-shirt wearing, messy tie adorned, cargo shorts sporting, sneaker decorated Nora Valkyrie was almost, or least she thought herself the huntress of the highest caliber among them, almost on par with Pyrrha and Ruby, she still knew her weaponry and tactics almost as well as the small reaper. 

That said, Ruby would of course bag to differ. 

“I’m sorry, what?” Asked the final girl in the group, who had been silent up till now. Sporting a rather lovely tighter black knee length dress with the front laced up, semi covering up any cleavage one could see, was the usually beautiful creature of the night, Blake Belladonna, who was currently walking right behind Yang while checking recent news on her scroll. She had been able to relax a lot more ever since Torchwick was put behind bars, and the White Fang had all but vanished in Vale. She still checked the news daily for any mention of terrorist activity, or mention of a certain red haired bull faunus, but nothing. She could finally relax.

Giggling, the ginger used an index finger to lift the black cat’s head, planting a small kiss on her lips before walking backward between her and Yang. “Couldn’t take your eyes off the T-shirt and tie combination? Let me simplify, cutie. I’m an explosion. If you’re far, it’s my grenades! If you’re close, it’s my hammer! If you’re somewhere in between, I can either blow you up, or get in close,” Nora bragged in a bombastic yell, grabbing the faunus’s waist and holding her so close with a loving squeeze. 

The feline’s smile was one of the largest she’d ever donned, feeling so loved and so at home with herself and her emotions. With the lack of news on her scroll and the dust stores in Vale reopening, and with her relationship now fully blooming, it seemed that all was right with the world. 

Yang, walking around Nora in order to pick her up and carry her bridal style down the street, took a second to remain silent and look contemplative while the booper in her arms kicked her feet, wrapping her arms around the blonde’s neck, giggling. 

“So, I guess... We all have our positives and negatives, but no weapon is really better or worse than any other.” 

After a minute more of walking in silence, Coco opened her mouth.

“I mean, except for Jaune’s,” the rather snide gunner remarked, barely able to contain her own laughter upon thinking about how feeble Crocea Mors as responding to the paladin. She couldn’t help but burst into a laughing fit, to which everyone had to join, even Pyrrha, feeling slightly guilty for a split second about so. 

‘Relax dear, you needed him and he wasn’t there. The one person, your partner, whom you needed to talk about that fleshy prison, and he left you with no rope. That’s why you have Nora now, and the girls.’

The boy just didn’t have a good weapon, not at all, it would seem. After all, there was a very distinct difference between heirlooms, and antiques. Not only could the poor blonde not use his blade correctly, he could barely have the steel respond to him at all. Combined with his lack of a semblance, or at least, not finding it yet, he was hardly a fighter of any calibre, and would lose faster to any of the eight girls than a Grim jackrabbit if one only existed.

Finally, they all stopped in front of the location Coco had chosen after a few more words with Ren, after having to track him down only to find him laying in two beds pushed together with Fox, Yatsu, and two other men she didn’t know personally, but had seen around the town once or twice. They were fully clothed, just reading and talking. 

The sign out in front of the rather shiny and sparkling building read “Jin Song Yu”, which, according to Coco and to Weiss, who verified, meant something in Vacuoan. Nora squirmed in Yang’s arms to be released, reminding the older sister of when Zwei no longer wanted to be held.

After a quick talk with a hostess and the small walk to their private room, already set up and then paid for with a swipe of Coco’s gold credit card, which Weiss had to simply chuckle at, orders were placed for sushi, Blake with stars in her eyes, and finally, it was time to begin their date.

At least, it was once Nora and Yang finished playing ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors’ for the first song of the night, which Yang won after four rock and rock ties. With a cheer, tossing Weiss her jacket, the bombastic and extremely attractive looking blonde ran up on the stage, and began to select her song from the list as drinks were brought in. 

For a second, Velvet just sipped her drink that tasted like a combination of cucumber, aloe, and a crispy and refreshing gin. She watched how Weiss and Blake whispered to each other and giggled, right before Pyrrha came back from using the bathroom, giving them both a kiss on the cheek. 

Something ate at Velvet’s heart. 

She gave Ruby a nudge, breaking her from her trance with Yang’s plump and alluring ass as she was bent over the console. Ruby was always the one who was the most entranced by her sister’s rear, and her bust to boot. It was just like the day barely a month ago, but Ruby still felt that powerful flame for every inch of her elder sister’s sweet body. 

“Ruby...” Velvet stammered, “can I ask you something?” She traced her finger over the rim of her glass, feeling the pad of her finger become wet. Looking up, she saw Ruby’s radiant, innocent smile nearly blind her with honesty.

“Of course, Velvet. What do you wanna ask, though?” The luscious looking lesbian girl turned her body away from the conversation between Nora and Coco, who seemed to be discussing clubs to go to after they were all sung out.

“Well, I don’t know how invasive this is, but,” she lifted her finger from the glass, and instead, seemed to take great interest in the wet index finger, hoping to distract herself from what she was about to say. Velvet popped her index into her mouth to lick the sweet alcohol from the pad of her finger and looked Ruby in the eyes a little embarrassed, the same embarrassment as she had in the library. 

“What’s it like?” The rabbit faunus asked meekly, her ears flopping a little and Ruby’s expression turning from her ecstatic glee to a tad slice of curiosity. 

The smile on her little face shrunk slightly, and became tinged with confusion. “What’s... what like?”

Squirming, Velvet managed to reach out and speak her words again through her flush of shame and embarrassment, letting her mind and more so her heart speak for her again. “Your relationship.”

For a few seconds, there was only silence between the red reaper and the velveteen rabbit. That is, until they both jumped as a drum beat kicked in, as the other five girls cheered at the sight of Yang up on the stage, one leg stepping on an amp, posing like a rock star. Lowering the microphone to her mouth, she began to sing in a screamo-type voice.

“Come on, feel the noise! Girls, rock your boys! We’ll get wild, wild, wild!” She roared, like a true rocker with the thrash of her drums calling the singing session to an order. She was the main attraction, in her tight booty shorts with her clean legs gleaming from the lights of the karaoke machine and her voluptuous chest booming out and enthralling Ruby, Blake and Pyrrha as Weiss began screaming with Nora in a fan driven frenzy

“Wild, wild, wild!” The rest of the girls, bar Velvet and Blake yelled back to the stunning blonde.

After that, the shredding guitar kicked in with the pounding and heavy bass, chiming in the start of the old school rock anthem and getting all but Rubles and her velveteen date on the small dance floor. 

Looking back at each other, Velvet and Ruby giggled, glad that the tension between them had shattered so suddenly and amazingly thanks to the stunning blonde now rocking out with her girlfriends. Fully turning to face her faunus companion, Ruby placed her elbows on her knees, and rested on her chin on her hands, which had formed a bridge. “Alright, Velv, what do you want to know?”

Velvet was thankful that Ruby was one of the people she could ask. Nora was energetic, Pyrrha was too elegant, Blake was a little unapproachable, Weiss was the same in a different way, and Yang was something else. Velvet took a second to look at the blonde brawler, admiring how amazingly beautiful and happy she looked. 

“So you think I got an evil mind? I tell you honey, I don’t know why!”

“I don’t know why!”

Looking back to Ruby, Velvet knew that she could feel herself in the younger huntress. The same shy, quick energy. Maybe that was why she was so approachable. “Well, how does it feel? Is it nice? Complicated? Being around so many people? Being in love with them?”

“So you think my singing’s out of time? It makes me money, and I don’t know why! I don’t know why! Anymore, oh no!”

Puckering her lips and tapping her feet, Ruby seemed to think with full force about this question. Finally, she blinked, and responded. “It’s pretty amazing, actually.”

“So come on, feel the noise! Girls, rock your boys! We’ll get wild, wild, wild!” Yang thundered with all her vocal might, her semblance firing up just a tiny bit and her hair catching on fire a little as her phoenix took flight. 

“Wild, wild, wild!” Again the girls yelled back as Ruby’s smile grew again as she looked into Velvet’s smoky and whiskey eyes, slowly seeing the alluring tones to them. 

“Come on, feel the noise! Girls, rock your boys! We’ll get wild, wild, wild!”

“Wild, wild, wild!”

“It’s simpler than you think,” Ruby started, getting closer to the bunny and starting to induce butterflies into Velvet and herself, sparking a little something between to the pair, It was how her silver eyes and pleasant face looked so adorable and yet extremely sexy in her very lesbian ensemble. “It’s not something I have to worry about. I love Weiss, I love Blake, I love Nora, I love Pyrrha, and I love Yang. It comes naturally, and the love I feel in return is just...” Inhaling, Ruby let a slow, gracious smile cross her face while she closed her eyes with a flutter, feeling the reminder of her loved up lifestyle. “Just incredible. I don’t think I’d trade it for anything. Not even...” and the smile faded, just as fast as it had arrived. “Well, maybe one or two things.”

“So you say I got a funny face, I got no worries! And I don’t know why! I don’t know why! Oh, I gotta sing with some disgrace! I’m in no hurry! And I don’t know why! I don’t know why! Anymore, no no no!” The fiery blonde roared again, blasting the room with luscious and party heavy tones, all while her girlfriends and Coco danced and headbanged, having simply the best of times. 

The shaded heavy gunner was not regretting her well spent money. Especially as she danced a little closer to the alluring and exceptionally dancing heiress.

Velvet was worried for a second. 

She was worried she had stumbled into some emotional pitfall, when a fact had crawled its’ way to the surface of her consciousness. “Ruby, aren’t you and Yang... sisters?”

The small amount of pain on Ruby’s face was instantly replaced with that of an internal panic. “Well, I mean, technically, half sisters, different mother, same dad, but I guess, yeah, one might say, that Yang and I, although we’re dating, are sisters, or although we’re sisters, we’re dating, and wow is my throat dry,” she gushed before tossing away her straw and chugging her diet cola in a single gulp and dropping the glass on their tray as her eyes popped a little and her stomach performed a sensational backflip.

Velvet gave a small giggle into her hand. Yes, they were sisters, but it was so easy to forget. They looked nothing alike, acted nothing alike, and honestly looked so much better as a couple than they did if one looked at them as sisters.

On stage, Yang began to play air guitar, headbanging as she did, sending her blonde hair into a frenzy, eliciting memories of ‘Cousin It’ from Weiss and Coco.

“Ruby, it’s okay. It’s fine. I’m not going to judge or comment. I don’t have either. I think it’s...” Velvet took a second to think of the right word as Yang’s scream-singing was making it a bit hard to concentrate, “lovely how the two of you so obviously don’t just love each other, but are also in love.” Taking another sip of her own veggie cocktail, she sputtered a bit at a sudden conclusion.

“Uh, Ruby, does that also mean that you and Yang...” Ruby, much to Velvet’s displeasure, did nothing but cock her head at her conversation partner. 

“Well, you think we should have a lazy time, you should know better! I don’t know why! I don’t know why!”

“So you say I got a dirty mind! I’m a mean go getter! I don’t know why! I don’t know why, anymore! Oh no!”

Sighing, Velvet did the only thing she knew would properly get the point across to Ruby nonverbally, and made a V with her fingers, putting it up to her mouth, and pushing her tongue between it.

As Ruby turned as red as her namesake, Velvet wondered if, perhaps, she was more of a lightweight than she remembered when it came to drinks, considering she just did what she believed was a good idea.

“So, I’m guessing that’s a yes, Ruby?” Velvet asked outright, to which the response was rapid nods, reminiscent of her own. Smiling, Velvet drew Ruby in for a hug, patting her on the head while she did. “I’m sorry for asking so many questions, but can you answer one more for me?”

Pulling back from the admittedly enjoyable hug, little Ruby thanked the waitress for another cola and took a much needed sip, feeling the sugar mix with the euphoria in her system as she became even more hot under the collar. Did Velvet just ask me if I have sex with Yang? She’s not exactly wrong, but how did she know we did that? After this, she managed to compose herself before straightening her shirt, and returning to her normal sitting position. “Alright, just as long as it’s not like the last. I don’t think I could take it.”

Looking directly into her silver eyes, Velvet saw herself reflected. “What does it actually feel like? And I don’t mean, it feels amazing, how does it feel like. I mean...” She snapped a few times, trying to organized her buzzed thoughts. “Can you describe it?”

Taking a deep breath, Ruby composed her thoughts, and began.

“Come on, feel it! Girls, rock your boys!”

“We’ll get wild, wild, wild! We’re gonna get wild, wild, wild!

“We’re gonna get rocked tonight!”

“It feels like a warmth wrapped around my being at all times. Like my aura has turned inside out and is now protecting me from the inside, instead of skin deep. It’s hard to describe, but it’s more like reliving a memory than anything.” She grabbed the half empty glass of soda, and slowly shook it in a circle, making the ice turn in a circle.

“It’s like the memories of childhood I have. The really good one of baking cookies, and blankets, and...” She stopped spinning the ice again, the same familiar emotion of old pain not quite healed coming over her face. 

“It’s like all those memories, that singular feeling in it that makes your heart so happy. That warmth.” She placed both hands around the glass, as if wanting to leech the cold from the cup.

“Come on feel the noise! Girls, rock your boys!”

“We’ll get wild, wild, wild!”

“That warmth has been injected into every day. Every hour. Every minute. It’s like I know these are the best days of my life, and I don’t know if they’re ever going to end.” Looking up, Velvet saw what she could only describe as pure and honest joy in her eyes.

“Ah, ah, ah!”

“Ah, ah, ah!”

“And I never want it to.” She placed a small kiss on Velvet’s cheek. “That’s thanks for helping me realize that. I didn’t know this date was going to be helpful to understand so much.”

As Ruby clapped with Nora, Pyrrha, Coco, Blake, and Weiss as Yang swept the hair out of her face, Velvet felt a tugging at her heart. But it wasn’t sadness, nor was it happiness. It was a sort of hunger, a desire. And, unconsciously, she was afraid of what it might mean for her. It was the kind sweet little Ruby had given her, the show of affection and her meek and gently, smaller, more innocent soul that had simply touched Velvet’s own heart. But it was also her figure, her sweet disposition and how amazingly attractive she looked. 

Velvet was feeling the unusual sensation of true attraction, and it was worrying her a little as she looked to her Coco on the small dance floor.


	9. Shoot To Thrill

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Velvet and Coco learn more about themselves, each other and the rest of the girls as the date continues and the two older girls decide to take a chance on polyamory and enter into the Rainbow. Mercury identifies why Jaune is such a bad huntsman and offers some sound and effective advice, teaching him how to fight as a paladin with Crocea Mors.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter, as well as all the others were written and edited by @yellowspottedblackbull, @femdaddydragon and myself, although this time especially they deserve more credit than I for taking the chapter as I wrote all of Chapter 10

“Finally!” said Nora, still sober being the only one besides Ruby who didn’t drink. Getting up, she pulled the silver eyed huntress up to the stage with her, as they selected which song to play. 

As Valkyrie and Rose scrolled through a similar section of song and music to what Ruby’s bombastic and extremely alluring elder sister had chosen to select their own bout of thumping bass and rogue guitars, Coco couldn’t help but eye Blake. She internally insisted it was not in a romantic or sexual way, but was lying to herself. She had noticed Velvet having a chat with Ruby during Yang’s performance, and had a suspicion of what it was about. 

Yes, the fashionista had been feeling curious about their arrangement as well; and curiosity becomes a heavy load that may, with time, overrule all else- including social convention.

Swirling her bourbon around in her glass, she took a sip and appreciated the sweet twinge, listening as she heard Blake mutter a quick excuse to her girlfriends before getting up and heading to the bathroom. 

Coco slid down the couch and wrapped an arm around Velvet, who seemed to be in her own little world. The little bunny jumped at the contact. Even though their eyes met, Coco could tell that Velvet didn’t have her heart in the gesture.

“Are you ok, cutie?” Coco whispered into her neck. The faunus hastily, almost unbelievably, nodded. Coco looked into her eyes once again. Still, the hearth brown of her eyes was inert. The fire in them was dimmed, none of the usual warmth beneath the surface.

As electric guitar started up over the speakers, the heavy gunner whispered into her girlfriend’s human ears once more. “You can tell me anything, Velvet. I promise. I don’t care what it is. I’m here, ok?”

This time, Coco was relieved to see life spring back into the Faunus’ eyes. She saw caring, love, and not a small amount of anxiety. Worry. She heard lyrics spring from the mouths of the duo on stage.

Taking the lead, Nora started, wearing her tie around her forehead.

“All you women, who want a man of the street, don’t know which way to turn. Just keep coming and put your hand out to me, cause I’m the one who’s gonna make you burn!”

Raising her own microphone, Coco saw that Ruby had lowered the suspenders from her shoulders, which now simply dangled loosely by her knees. The youngest of them all took a deep breath before continuing the song which she was now a part of a duet in.

“I’m gonna take you down! Down, down, down! So don’t you fool around!”

“I’m gonna pull it, pull it, pull the trigger!”

“I need to go to the bathroom, are you gonna be ok?” Coco asked her adorable girlfriend, who finally gave a small, honest smile, and shook her head once more. The sunglasses wearer couldn’t help but give a smile in return at the sight of those bouncing ears. Giving her a small kiss on the nose, she stood up and turned, saying “Be right back.”

As she left, she admired the tenacity, if not talent, at which the lyrics were screamed and sung, much like Yang’s was earlier. One did not need their voice to dance, did they?

Raising her microphone once again, Nora took the lead for the first bit of the chorus.

“Shoot to thrill! Play to kill! Too many women, too many pills yeah!”

Grinning, Ruby responded in kind.

“Shoot to thrill, play to kill, I got my gun at the ready, gonna fire at will! Yeah!”

As Coco passed them, she couldn’t help but giggle at the ferocity at which they both air guitared. She didn’t like fooling Velvet, but she couldn’t be completely honest, even if she didn’t know why. She wasn’t going to the bathroom. Well, she was. But not to use it. To speak to someone else who was already there.

Scratch that, someone who was already on her way back, and was approaching her in the hallway. Now or never, right?

“Blake, can I talk to you?” Looking up from her phone, her eyes widened a few millimeters, seemingly surprised to see Coco

“Yeah,” Blake said, putting away the scroll, “of course you can. What’s up?”

Taking a deep breath, she wondered if she was making a mistake. She knew of other, older hunting groups who were in similar relationships, but she never knew how they did it or how it felt. 

She loved her little bun bun, but that was it. She was fairly sure that Fox didn’t swing her way. Yatsu? Well she wasn’t even sure Yatsuhashi had a way he swung, except of his sword. So maybe guys?

She exhaled in a sigh. Deciding to go with the path of least resistance, she just let the words flow out. “What’s it like? Your relationship?”

A corner of Blake’s mouth turned up, in a tired but happy kind of half smile. “Yeah, I expected this line of questioning. Well, that’s a pretty broad question. Care to simplify?” The raven haired girl leaned against the wall, shoulder first. When she bent her head against it too, Coco’s eyes caught the flutter of her cat ears as they brushed the not quite clean wall; the action reminded herself that Blake was indeed a cat faunus. She had actually stopped wearing the bow two or so weeks ago, but her dark ears looked so similar to the bow she wore, that it was easy to miss it. 

“Well, are there...” pushing her tongue against her cheek, Coco fought for the words she was looking for, “any changes to routine?” She matched Blake’s gaze as the words finally rose to the surface. “Like, what’s changed throughout the day for you?”

Coco heard a small puff of air escape the faunus’ nose, and wondered if that was the colder girl’s version of a laugh. “Well, first, it’s nice to not have to wake up alone. The beds are a bit cramped to fit all of us, but it’s always pleasantly warm.” A bit of color crept into her face as she quietly admitted, “especially on Yang’s pillows.”

Coco let a small bit of tooth shine out from the corner of her mouth. “I’m guessing you and Ruby fight over that bit of real estate, eh?”

Looking away, it was clear that she didn’t think Coco had heard her silent murmered confession. The blushing faunus’ mouth was actutally slightly agape in shock at her embarrassingly blatant statement being overheard. 

“Oh, by the way, Ruby and Yang,” Coco sputtered, saving Blake further blushing and embarrassment. Shaking her head, causing her lock of lighter hair to bounce in front of her face, she continued with her question “what’s up with that? Are you guys okay with that or?...”

Letting out a gentle sigh, Blake gingerly nodded her head. “Yeah, we all are. I don’t fully know why,” she felt the heat rise to her face again, “it’s actually weird to think of them as sisters, even before we all got together. It felt...” She waved a single hand in front of her, as if trying to coax the words out of herself. “Natural. It felt natural for them to finally get together. Yang has always taken care of Ruby, even reading to her at night when they were kids growing up together under the same roof. And they get along so well, until it comes to video games.” Blake smiled almost dreamily, lost in her own thoughts and memories.

Coco couldn’t help but raise both her eyebrows at that response, and seeing Blake so openly showing her softer side. Not that Coco disagreed with the faunus’ statement. She agreed wholeheartedly that the half-sisters made great lovers as well. “Well, what else changes during your day, then?”

Snapping out of her daydream, Blake scratched her chin. Her ears twitched in thought. Silently, Coco wondered just how under her control the ears were. “Dressing can be a fun affair. Everyone’s wearing each other’s clothes, usually. Sometimes for comfort, sometimes because it smells like them,” she paused for a second, remembering just how often Pyrrha used that excuse, “and sometimes just because you know who it belongs to. It feels like carrying around a piece of them.”

The fashion obsessed girl gave a small shiver. “I don’t think I could ever do that. People stealing my underwear daily? Messing up my whole outfit? Ugh, no thanks.”

Blake let out an actual chuckle at this, catching Coco’s attention. She wasn’t aware the golden eyed girl was capable of actual laughter up until this point. “Well, Coco, you’d be surprised. It’s an emotional thing. When you can’t be around someone, it helps to wear a piece of them.”

Coco let her snark out to play for a moment. “You know you’re spouting some Silence of the Grimms shit right now, right?”

Blake, seemingly unfazed by the comment just gave a small shrug. “Whatever. Besides that, it’s pretty normal. We eat together, we hang out, we cuddle, we nap, we do a bit more.” She took her eyes off of Coco for a second, staring at the floor instead. “It’s pretty freaking incredible...how it feels.”

Coco could feel Blake beginning to withdraw back into herself. She needed one more answer. There was something about what the faunus girl had said. Something that was lighting a fuse in her that she didn’t know existed, and didn’t know if she wanted to light.

“You still didn’t answer my first question, Blake.” High heels strutted over tile up to the black cat in front of her.

“What question was that?” Blake replied cautiously, returning to her full standing position.

“What’s it like?” Coco crossed her arms, showing that she had no intention of letting the girl pass until she got her response.

Letting out a small huff, Blake crossed her arms in a similar, defiant way. “I thought I had already told you, that’s a broad question-”

“So let me simplify it for you.” Coco paused, taking the opportunity to crack her neck. She knew intimidation was something in her arsenal that could be wielded in a number of situations. “What does it feel like? Your little situation that you got with the gladiator, the hammer, the heiress, the brawler, and her rosebud of a sister..”

Letting her arms fall to her side, Coco saw mist glaze the catlike eyes over. For a second, she was worried she pushed Blake too far; but suddenly she started speaking.

“It feels like what I’ve been looking for since I was born. Acceptance, love, companionship, with no borders of faunus or human.” Looking directly into Coco’s eyes, the fashionista saw fiery passion. “I finally found somewhere, someone, a few who don’t want to change any aspect of me. They love me for me and I won’t let anyone change that. I won’t let anyone hurt them.” As if by magic, Coco knew that Blake’s fists were clenched. “And if anyone does, I will kill them. No matter how many people, or faunus, that try to.”

Coco felt the fuse light.

She put her arms on Blake’s shoulders, drawing her in for a hug. She soothingly talked into her ear as she embraced the girl. “I’m sorry. I was too pushy. I was curious. You all seem so happy. I just wanted to make sure it wasn’t for show.” Drawing back, the brunette took a second to dust off the other girl’s shoulders, making sure they were ready to reenter the fun. “It’s hard to think that something that seems too good to be true, actually isn’t good or true.” 

Coco turned to walk, but felt her hand being grabbed. Turning around, she saw Blake looking at her filled with determination. “It’s not too good to be true. There are problems from time to time. Nora can be a handful, and so can Ruby. Weiss can be both frigid and prudish, then overcompensate within the same ten minutes. Yang...” Blake let go of Coco’s hand and instead used her left hand to rub her right forearm as she looked away. “Yang can be a lot of things. She’s amazing, but at night. When she’s unsure of herself. Unsure of her future. She needs us. And when she’s asleep, I can tell. Her arm has these...”

“Phantom pains.” Coco finished. When Blake’s confusion was evident, she sighed and knew she had to let the black cat in on her past.

“My parents. They’re doctors who’ve treated a lot of victims of Grimm attacks, hunters and civilians alike. They let me talk to the stable patients, who usually appreciated having someone to talk to during long periods of nothing,” she scratched her nose, then ran a hand through her hair under her signature beret. “And those patients told me a lot about where they were from; they talked about the smell of the flowers or the beautiful trees. And then I could always tell when they realized that none if it existed anymore, that their memories were all that remained. I was once freaked out as a kid when one of the patients told me he could feel his arm that wasn’t there anymore. I was scared for like,” she paused for a second, smiling as she thought of her own naive adolescence, “a month before I asked my parents what it was. They called it a “phantom pain.’”

They stood there for a moment. Neither spoke a word, nor looked at each other. The sound of guitar and drums, with the occasional “yeah!” filled the silence. The music coming from the curtained off room behind Coco.

Showing a small smile of reassurance and taking Blake’s hand, the sunglasses wearing girl suggested that they “head back to the fun.” All the while she lead the faunus girl back to their seats, she tried to ignore just how warm the simple contact was making her.

Their arrival back, however, was something unexpected. They had expected to see Ruby and Nora still belting away, with their girlfriends cheering from the seats. Ruby and Nora were indeed still singing, but Ruby appeared to be wearing Weiss’s cardigan like a cape, while Nora did the same with Yang’s jacket. The lights were off, except for the stage. Pyrrha, Yang, Weiss, and Velvet were below the stage, waving their arms onto it like rabid fangirls.

This was made all the more ridiculous, of course, by the fact that the stage was only about two feet above the ground, meaning the four girls were all kneeling in front of it, screaming and cheering as Ruby and Nora screamed the lyrics into the microphone.

“I'm gonna get you down. Down, down, down, down!”

“Shoot you, shoot you, shoot you, shoot you down!”

Both Blake and Coco couldn’t help suddenly bursting into laughter at the scene, falling to the ground with everyone else, howling with tears running down their face.

Nora, raising her microphone one last time, let out her most shrill rockstar voice as she knew what she had to do.

“Shoot you, shoot you, shoot you down!” before instantly running to the back of the stage and licking the light socket.

Ruby, lost in her own rockstar fantasy, nearly blew her vocal chords out with one last blast of sound.

“I’m gonna shoot to thrill!”

“Play to kill!”

Finished charging, Nora ran to the front of the stage, knee slid between Ruby’s legs, Held up both her arms, and held her closed hands to the sky. At the last second, she opened her fists, and let a massive arc of lightning fly between them, lightning up the entire room for a full second.

“Shoot. To. Thrill!”

As the music cut out, both collapsed face up on the floor of the stage as all the other six girls cheered with all their might.

For a second, nothing happened. But soon enough, giggles were heard from the floor of the stage. Nora stood up, helping pull Ruby to her feet. After sharing a kiss and hug, they took a simultaneous bow, leaving the stage still holding hands. 

For a little while, everyone calmed down and just had a drink or two as sushi was brought in. Not everyone had decided to get something to eat before they went dancing, but Velvet, Nora, and Ruby had seemingly hyper boosted metabolisms so they had a whole roll each to themselves. While Blake, being the cat faunus she is by nature, shamelessly had two; which Yang took notice of and sent a sly smirk in the dark haired girls direction.

After finishing up their conversation and giving her Snow White (or Snow Weiss as Yang had teased once) a loving little kiss, Pyrrha went up to select her own song. The other six girls, however, were unaware of the tension between the two third year girls, who were drinking next to each other, in silence. 

Both felt something they were never expecting to come from someone else besides the person beside them. Both felt they were doing something wrong. Both felt clueless for what to do. As they turned and looked into each other’s eyes, all they felt was guilt.

Coco and Velvet knew they had to say something to each other, anything. Something to stop this emotion. This emotion for someone else. A situation that wasn’t theirs. They were so entranced, so worried, they didn’t even notice the music as it began to play. They both opened their mouth, but nothing came out.

“Standing in the rain.”

All the girlfriends in the room turned slowly, and gazed upon their girl in red. With the lighting, the colors, and the voice, she was truly worthy of being called a goddess.

“With his head hung low. Couldn’t get a ticket. It was a sold out show.”

She slowly raised her open hand, from her hip, to the ceiling, in a slow arc.

“Heard the roar of the crowd, he could picture the scene.”

“Put his ear to the wall, and like a distant scream,”

With ferocity, she mimicked the motion of a fierce power chord strum, perfectly in time with the music.

“He heard one guitar!”

Again, the same strum, the same power behind it.

“Just blew him away!”

“He saw stars in his eyes!”

“And the very next day!”

As the song returned to it’s melancholic state, Pyrrha herself began to slump down, causing all the other girls in the room to lean forward, as if worried for her state.

“He bought a beat up six string, in a second hand store.”

Nora smiled slyly, slipping away from Blake who was in the middle of feeding her a piece of sushi, in order to crawl on stage and take the pose of a girl ready to rock out on a guitar- sans the actual guitar. Blake smiled at this sight and nearly unconsciously put another bit of Maguro sushi in her mouth, chewing slowly as the savoriness of the rice and tuna spread across her tongue.

“Didn’t know how to play it, but her knew for sure,”

“That one guitar!”

In time with the music, Nora pulled a stunning recreation of a medley of every famous rock guitarist of the past fifty years. Bending her legs, arching her back, and using her middle finger to pluck an invisible guitar string.

“Felt good in his hands! Didn’t take long, to understand!”

“That one guitar, slung way down low, was a one way ticket, only one way to go!”

Yang, cheering at the spectacle, took a swig from her beer. She had never been into harder liquor, and her aura tended to take the alcohol out of her body faster than it could inebriate her with beer. So she stayed in a nice buzzed state, instead of becoming blackout drunk. She was never the type to drink in order to become drunk. Considering what kind of trouble she could get in sober, she didn’t want to know where she’d end up if she was blackout drunk. Perhaps lock up. Or, if it was anything like last time, a bed with twin sisters. 

“So he started rockin', ain't never gonna stop!”

“Gotta keep on rockin', someday gonna make it to the top!”

Not that it had been a total mistake. Both girls had been pretty damn attractive. And Yang had never fooled around with twins before. One in black and red, the other in white and light blues. She took a second to catch a glance at Ruby and Weiss, wondering just how long she had been in denial about her attraction to them.

“And be a Juke Box Hero!”

As if practiced, Blake, Ruby, and Yang all sang with Pyrrha and Nora from their seats.

“Got stars in his eyes!”

“He’s a Juke Box Hero! He took one guitar! Juke Box Hero!”

“Stars in his eyes!”

Somehow, she even remembered a good part of that night. Junior’s had just reopened after her information gathering session, and she was feeling thirsty. Yang challenged him, if she drank him under the bar, she could come back anytime she wanted. If he drank her under the bar, not only would she have to pay everything back, but work there for a year.

The poor man let her pick both the duel, and the weapon.

“Juke Box Hero,” Nora stood next to her and sung into the microphone for the “stars in his eyes,” before Pyrrha finished the chorus with a quick: “he'll come alive tonight.”

After he was passed out on the floor behind the bar, she was just properly tipsy. Not yet drunk, but the two twin cuties had caught her eye. 

“In a town without a name, in a heavy downpour, thought he passed his own shadow, in the backstage door.”

“I love you, Pyrrha!”, screamed an adorable, and slightly buzzed off alcoholic kisses, Ruby Rose. 

“Like a trip through the past, to that day in the rain, and that one guitar, made his whole life change.”

They had done some shots together as well, and it wasn’t long until all three of them were properly and totally sloshed off their asses. One or two sly touches later, and they were heading upstairs.

“Now he needs to keep on rockin’, ain’t never gonna stop!”

Yang even remembered their names.

“Gotta keep on rockin’! That boy has got to stay on top!”

Melanie and Miltia Malachite. The bouncers she had fought that first night at Junior’s Bar.

“And be a Juke Box Hero, got stars in his eyes! He’s a Juke Box Hero, got stars in his eyes!”

Honestly Yang didn’t know why she couldn’t get them out of her head at this moment. Was it the alcohol? Being in such close proximity to so many attractive girls? Or just a stray memory left over that she didn’t look at too often?

“Yeah, Juke Box Hero! Stars in his eyes!”

As she looked around herself she saw all five of her girlfriends, and even Coco and Velvet, singing along while holding hands.

“With that one guitar! Stars in his eyes!”

And she realized just how happy she really was.

She took another swig of beer.

“He’ll come alive, come alive tonight! Woah!”

 

“So, all for bringing a separate pair of shoes when we go dancing?” Asked a very tired, sore, and weighed down Coco Adel.

A collective “yes” was heard all around her, because even though eight girls were there, only five were walking. Coco was currently carrying her girlfriend, Velvet. She had gone a bit overboard on the drinks after they got to the nightclub, and was currently acting like an obstacle seeking missile. Every street sign, mailbox, light pole, and other inanimate object she managed to walk into and wrap her arms around. Much like she was doing to Coco currently.

“That was fun, I have to say.” Murmurs of agreement came after Pyrrha’s joyful statement. Due to her inhuman amounts of stamina, she managed to match both Nora and Ruby for dancing, and could still carry one of them back to the last airship home. Blake and Weiss had danced for one or two songs, but had more enjoyed seeing everyone else enjoy themselves. Coco and Velvet split their time between the bar and the dancefloor, while Yang tried to dance, but mostly just hip-checked people away who tried to grind up on her girlfriends before they could notice. Grinding up on her girls was her job, no one else's.

“Yeah, but nothing and I mean nothing’, was more fun than karaoke,” said a very, very sore Nora Valkyrie, after she managed to spit all the blonde hairs out of her mouth.

“Nothing beats my Pyrrha’s singing.” Pyrrha gave a small smile as she heard her tired rose speak into the back of her head. Hefting her up, ensuring the sleepy girl had her grip, she managed to plant a small kiss on the back of one of the two hands hooked over her shoulders.

“So, now that we’re all tired out, we still have time before the airship arrives, considering the second-to-last one for the night just left. Any suggestions?” Blake asked the rest of the group, who stopped mid step, frozen by the combination of a total lack and over saturation of possibilities.

That is, until Weiss pointed at a glowing neon sign, and stated “twenty four hour ice cream parlor.” Which caught everyone’s attention, and in unison, silently trudged towards it.

Coco passed a groaning Velvet a cone of Rocky Road ice cream, while she licked her own Lavender flavor. She gave herself a bit of bragging room about her ability to handle her drinks, while Velvet could be a bit of a lightweight. The ice cream parlor was named Invierno Siempre and known for having forty eight different flavors of gourmet ice cream, was family run, and currently ranked the best late night snack in Vale. It was small. Only five different tables of four chairs each, with a bar where one chose their flavor. It made the quaint restaurant a hidden gem.

“Good news about Aura,” said a cocky Coco Adel, “is that it allows you to process toxins in your blood quickly, like alcohol, when you need to sober up.” She took a lick of her pale violet treat before continuing. “Bad news about Aura,” she passed the groaning bunny faunus a bottle of water she had picked up also, “doesn’t mean you get to skip the accelerated hangover.”

While her little Bun-Bun poured a bit of water on her own head and the rest down her throat, she could hear the other relationship at the restaurant getting annoyed at the Valkyrie. While everyone had already chosen and revived their flavor, Nora was still indecisive. Ruby had gotten strawberry chocolate chip, Blake had Earl Grey tea flavor, Weiss had a grapefruit sorbet, Pyrrha had a special limited time flavour of honey with bits of nuts in it, and Yang had chosen a cheesecake option after they revealed they were out of the green tea flavor.

Nora, on the other hand, was caught between German chocolate, french vanilla bean, wild strawberry, and mint chocolate chip. For some reason, she ending up choosing Noodle Kugel- another limited time flavor.

For a while, everyone just sat and ate. For the first moment since they left Beacon, they just enjoyed the silence. There was the airship’s engines, the long conversations, the singing, the heavy club beat, but now? The silence was enough. 

Another few bottles of water were bought, Nora and Ruby were loaded onto backs, while a now sober Velvet simply walked next to her girlfriend, holding hands.

As they started down the street, behind everyone else, the two older girls knew what they needed to talk about.

“I want something. Something I don’t think you can give me,” came out of Velvet’s mouth before she could stop it. “And I feel horrible about it. It’s why I had so much to drink, and I’m sorry about that. I don’t like getting drunk, but it’s like I was trying to drown the feeling. I couldn’t. I still want...”

“What they have.” Finished Coco. “I know. Hell, I don’t just want something like they have, I want that.” She wiped an eye behind her sunglasses. “I feel like the biggest piece of shit on the planet, because I love you. I adore you. I’ll fucking kill anyone who tries to hurt you, but... what if that person’s me?”

For a few minutes, they just walked in silence.

“I’m sorry, Coco.” said a downtrodden Velvet.

Laughing, Coco took off her sunglasses to properly wipe the guilty tears from her eyes. “Why, Velv? I feel the same way you do.”

“Because if I never suggested this date, we might’ve never had to find out these feelings were possible.”

Sighing, Coco let go of her girlfriend’s hand, instead choosing to throw an arm around her shoulder. “Actually, I think we would’ve found these feelings exist anyway. I’m just glad we figured them out on the same night, together.”

Velvet nodded. Not too fast, not too slow. She was too tired for anything else. They walked in silence for the rest of the way.

The airship was a few minutes late. They boarded it together. It wasn’t a large one. Not much bigger than a single subway car. The first row was full, Blake sitting on Pyrrha’s lap, Yang stretched out over everyone else’s, making them laugh about the reasons why Junior’s Club would be closed tonight, before they went to Yang’s back up club, “Miracle Aligner”. Two rows back, Velvet and Coco sat together, glad everyone else seemed to be oblivious to the emotional turmoil behind them.

“Do you want to ask them?” Coco whispered into one of Velvet’s bunny ears.

“About?” came the reply of a tired, and dry eyed third year faunus.

“Us.” Velvet looked up at Coco, who had a serious, melancholic look on her face.

For a second, neither moved. Before Velvet gave one last nod, with a single word. “Tomorrow.”

They leaned on each other in silence for the remaining half hour back to Beacon.

As the airship touched down, Ruby and Nora were the first two off, with more energy than the others, but only marginally. Blake looked like she had lost a dress size despite the multiple rolls of sushi she had at the karaoke club. Weiss looked to be functioning at forty percent efficiency which was a huge contrast to her usual hundred and ten percent. Yang’s hair had so much frizz it looked like a corona, and Pyrrha looked like she was sleep walking. Every one of the eight girls was ready for bed.

Which made it so much easier for the universe to laugh at the following event.

“Yang?”

As the blonde looked up from her zombie-like walk, she saw someone familiar quickly walking towards her. Someone with black hair, green eyes, who wore a red and black dress. One of the same someones who Yang was thinking about earlier.

“Militia?”

She had to rub her eyes and look at the confusion on the other girl’s faces to confirm that this was indeed real. Miltia Malachite was not just in front of her, but she was on Beacon grounds. And for some reason, it looked like she had blood stains on her dress, although it was hard to tell.

Turning behind her, she yelled “Melanie, it’s her! I found her!” and after turning back, she threw her arms around Yang, the rest of the girlfriends too confused to react, “I’m so glad. We didn’t know how to find you! You’re the only one we can turn to right now, I’m so sorry.”

Pushing her away, Yang held her at arm’s length, looking directly into the candy-green eyes, lighter than Pyrrha’s, Yang had to notice, and asked seriously “Militia, what is this about? What are you doing at my school?”

But before she could get a straight answer, she was being pulled by Melanie, who hadn’t bothered to say a word. Before Yang could protest, she was already being brought to a bench in the courtyard, where two bandaged people lay. Yang’s heart leapt when she recognized them. One had dark skin and green hair. Should she open her eyes, Yang knew that they would be as red as her’s when she was angry. Her name was Emerald. Emerald Sustrai. There were bandages around her forehead, and a lot around her midsection. The other girl was...

The twins backed up as Yang felt her hair ignite. She recognized the other girl. She didn’t know her name, but she knew her. She knew the feel of her heels. The weight of her umbrella. Just how much that little body could throw, and how hard it could throw her into the roof of a train. She wondered if Miltia and Melanie would be able to pull her off of the girl before she could punch her enough times to turn that white, pink, and brown hairstyle red all over.

“Yang, are you ok?” hazarded a worried and still tired Ruby. She was behind her big sister and lover, but could see two people on the benches. Sighing, Yang picked up Emerald bridal style, trying to ignore Melanie now saying that she was the only one they could turn to. “Nora.” The Valkyrie struck a salute as Yang addressed her. “Pick up the other girl. You two,” Yang stated with no joy in her voice, addressing the twins, “are coming with us.” After Nora had hefted the girl over her shoulder, all twelve girls began to jog toward the dorms. 

Miles away, in an airship, Winter Schnee was asleep with puffy eyes in a cheap, red eye flight airship from Atlas to Vale. 

Ozpin smiled in his sleep, as he dreamt of a blizzard of red, blue, black, and white clouds raining not just snow, but ice cream and gemstones upon him.

“You want to train me?”

Mercury didn’t like the amount of red that had risen to his face after Jaune seemed so incredulous at the grey haired boy’s offer. He actually didn’t like a lot to do with Jaune these days. Not that he had been doing anything wrong, Merc just didn’t like the way he seemed to relax when Jaune was around, or how excited Jaune seemed when he showed Mercury another picture of what clothes his sisters were sending, or how excited Mercury himself got when he saw the pictures. Or how he felt when he looked up from the pictures and saw Jaune grinning at him, a smile with brightness to rival the sun itself. 

The reserved of late and off guard kickboxer was constantly finding himself as such whenever Jaune was around him, whenever he found himself in the blonde’s vicinity and it was slowly eating away at the young teen. Especially when he saw those little moments between the blonde and Cinder. He took a deep breath out of annoyance.

A crush on Jaune Arc. 

It was rather embarrassing to Merc, and he hardly wanted to handle it at all. In the past few days since Jaune had walked in on him in Cinder’s lavish dress, the pair had become a lot closer. Jaune tended to lay his head on Cinder’s thighs, she tended to run her fingers through his hair, and Mercury had even seen them kissing one night after dinner. He half suspected that this was just a ploy by Cinder to get the belt off, but she was acting like the grey haired teen had never seen before. If he had to put a word to it, it seemed to be a cross between happy, and honest.

It gave him the chills.

“Yes, Arc, I want to train you. Consider it thanks for...” He trailed off at the end of the sentence, and began to itch the back of one ankle with the foot of the other, regardless of if he ever actually felt anything. It was a habit of his before he had lost his legs, and he had never really grown out of it.

“The clothes?” Jaune asked, and Mercury cringed, forgetting just how clueless, and honest, the blonde knight could be. He never intended harm, and based on his fight record, that included during actual battles too. If he didn’t feel so positive towards his peer, he would’ve watched his numerous fights against Cardin for relaxation, with a big bucket of popcorn for sustenance. He had only watched a few, but it had been enough to give Mercury a hunch about why an in shape boy, regardless of previous training, had barely made any progress after an entire year of training with a champion. A champion like Pyrrha Nikos.

“Yes, Arc, the clothes. Shut up about them, and come meet me in the training room.” He left the room, hoping the roommate would follow, and his hopes were not for naught after he heard the sound of Crocea Mors enter her sheathe and bouncing as Jaune ran down the hallway after him.

One of the training rooms was actually Glynda’s classroom. During the summer, it could be used by student for practice battles, whether it be for training styles, sparring, or settling disagreements. The tiered seating that turned it into a lecture hall any other day was set back against the far wall and the room was fully open, another arena. 

Mercury set the aura limit for twenty five percent during the battle, meaning that if either of them dropped below twenty five percent of their aura level, a wall of light would come up between them, and declare a victor. 

“Alright, pretty boy, show me what you got,” Merc taunted with more than just a little bit of tease, as he charged forward. 

Leaping, and aiming for a dropkick, Jaune caught it full on with his shield, before Mercury lept off, knocking Jaune to the floor. He charged again; Jaune brought his sword in an upward, and sideways curve, like that of an exponential function. It was meant to be devastating and unexpected, but Mercury simply dodged it with ease before sending a kick into the now open right side of Jaune Arc.

Again, he collapsed fully to the ground, his aura holding at around eighty percent. Mercury, for once, was a bit impressed about something Jaune had to do with fighting. Ordinarily, such a powerful blow into such an exposed part would drop a person’s aura down to around forty. His aura, on the other hand, was strong and young Jaune had a lot of it. It was more of a suit of armor than anything.

Mercury Black fired a single bullet from his leg, which Jaune tried to knock away, but only succeeded in shaking his shield in such a way that he needed to drop the sword to get the vibrations to stop, so his arm wouldn’t go numb. 

And Mercury knew. He disabled the match, which declared him the victor. Before Jaune could protest, Mercury held up a single hand, and sat down at the step before Glynda’s desk, gesturing for Jaune to come in front of him, crossing one leg over the other. After he arrived, Mercury held up his fingers in a steeple formation. “Jaune, have you ever heard the saying ‘A kid wearing his dad’s suit.’?”

With a confused look on his face, Jaune put away Crocea Mors and stood, looking at Merc with a wholehearted expression, ready to finally learn. “Yeah. Pretty sure that’s a common saying,” the young blonde responded with a small smile, feeling defeated but also exhilarated at the same time.

Nodding, Merc pointed at Jaune, with both index fingers. “Yeah, see, Jaune? That’s how I describe your fighting style.”

As Mercury saw Jaune’s face go from confusion, to annoyance, he believe he owed the blonde knight reasoning behind it. “You were trained by the redhead, right? The one who won all those tournaments and kicked the shit outta Cardin? Well, I see her in your moves. Every one of them is a pale, off balance imitation of her techniques,” the teacher described to his student, who was still listening intently despite the small ache forming in his back. As Jaune opened his mouth to refute, Mercury knew just what to say to stop those words in his throat. “And that’s not your fault.”

Indeed it did stop Jaune in his tracks. ‘He’s not blaming me?’, Jaune seemed to think.

Standing, Mercury lept into the stadium. “See, Jaune, the reason her style works so well for her is because it’s her style. She’s suave, light, and flexible,” he accented this by performing some acrobatics, flipping and spinning in the air that did indeed remind Jaune of a demonstration or two that Pyrrha had done for him, when they were close, when they were partners. “You, on the other hand, are not. You have muscle, a little, but it makes you rooted, heavy. You’re not a gladiator, you’re a knight, or paladin and it makes you unable to use these fancy flips and acrobatics. You need a certain rooted and blocky stance that will work with Crocea Mors more effectively than her lance,” again, Mercury accented his statement, but not by doing flips, but instead by adopting a rooted stance, and kicking with one foot firmly planted on the ground, the power of it sending wind currents spinning.

“So here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to do some research on more traditional sword techniques, and then we’re going to practice, right?” The teen in grey with the warming smile settled, with his hands on his hips. He, for a second, felt like his old self again. That is, until Jaune leaped down as well, and hugged him as hard as he could. 

Mercury Black melted. 

“This makes so much sense! No wonder that whenever I held Crocea Mors the way Pyrrha taught me, it felt wrong! This is amazing!” The grateful blonde rang out as he embraced his friend, his close and simply amazing friend, who’d opened his mind.

As Jaune dragged Mercury along to the library, his mind began to fear something. One man had the power to do this to him. The same man who was currently with Cinder Fall, one of the people he feared the most, even in her powerless state.

He had no idea what he was doing, but it felt right. Mercury actually felt right truly for once.


	10. Reflections

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The girls of the Rainbow Household settle down for their last night in Vale before leaving for the sunny metropolistic shores of Mistral. Funnily enough, Neptune is the new pizza delivery boy to pay them a visit and Penny becomes emotional while playing Mass Effect 3 with the rest of her girlfriends. After that the night turns into another haze of love and nonsensical emotion with a few of the girls ending up to smother Yang in queer love. Then, a mysterious Private Investigator gets tossed from a roof by an all too familiar masked woman with a sword and Cinder receives a message in her sleep from an all too familiar associate...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We name all the chapters of this story after songs and this chapter is no different. 'Reflections' is the score from Mass Effect 2 whenever the player reaches the pinnacle romance scene just before they launch the suicide mission at the final point in the game.

From Professor Glynda Goodwitch of Beacon Academy to Headmaster Ozpin of Beacon Academy

Ozpin, I would like to request a two week period of leave directly after classes conclude for the winter holidays. The Schnees have managed to secure their ski lodge in the Atlas mountains and Miss Nikos has expressed her desire to return to Mistral for a time. I have looked at possible hotels and a few have taken our eyes. 

Therefore I, on behalf of all the girls, request permission to leave Vale for a much needed vacation. It will allow us to bond and further develop our feelings for one another and would very much appreciate it if you would allow the trip to take place. 

Oobleck, Port and Peach are more than capable of looking after the students who do not also return to their families during the holidays, and you have already informed me you have plans with Mister Arc and Mister Black. I won’t question what those plans are, only I hope you know what you’re doing Oz, you always do. 

I would greatly appreciate the leave for the two weeks, and I know all the girls would also. Thank you Ozpin.

Il n'y a pas lieu comme à la maison.

The sun had retreated below the horizon in Vale by the time the girls were fully ready to enjoy their last night in the city before their two week extensive trip around Remnant, where they would head off first to Mistral, the land of true and full sexual and romantic freedom, where mostly anything and everything morally correct was accepted and cherished, including polyamory, as Pyrrha had proudly told them all multiple times. 

That was something both Glynda and Winter could not wait to see on the streets of the shining region, a group of three or more lovers holding hands, picking up their child, kissing by a lamppost, laughing at an outside bistro. It was a fairly lovely expectation of the warm and luscious region. 

Their second and last stop on their well deserved and need vacation was Atlas, the northern and polar opposite region to the sunny Mistral, polar being correct. The accommodation was the Schnee family ski lodge in the mountains, which meant snow and cold, something only really Weiss and Winter were avidly looking forward to, while Penny was indifferent for she could simply switch off her temperature detection algorithms. 

Now all they were waiting on for their final night in Vale for two weeks, was everyone to get into their sleepwear and for the pizzas to arrive as little Penny sat on the sofa, completely engrossed in what was on the television. She was the only girl already in her sleepwear and ready to begin the night, silent on the couch as cute as she could be with her luscious orange hair in petite little twintails to keep it tidy while she played. 

Although the opening title screen to ‘Mass Effect 3’ was simply stationary on the television screen while little Penny waited for her girlfriends to join her, she was nearly vibrating with excitement.

“What is taking everyone so long Ruby?” The ginger synth girlfriend asked her rose. 

There were only a few of the girls around the living space hovering while the rest were all around different sections of the household. Ruby was seated on the armchair next to the couch where her lovable synth was seated, although she phased to her girlfriend’s side with a zip of her semblance quickly after she spoke. 

Quickly and sweetly, Ruby planted a soft kiss on the right cheek of her adorable Penny, snuggling up to her in a warm hug, sucking the assumed loneliness out of the ginger gamer. “I’m not sure, I think Winter’s taking forever to find her jammies. Coco’s trying to get a hold of the pizza place because the order’s late,” Ruby responded, holding onto her beautiful synth girl while she rested her head lazily and contently on her collar. 

Penny’s memory travelled back, thinking momentarily about when she first realised she was in unconditional love with the little rose. She remembered the whole ordeal and the familiar feeling of butterflies in her artificial stomach. It has always been such an odd sensation, and when her wires crossed like upon seeing all of the girls interact with each other, realising she was falling for all of them, and that it was a feeling that she would never forget. 

Her metal and organic overlaced arms folded around her girlfriend in the black and strawberry pajamas, of course with her cape still on, and gave Ruby a light but certainly affectionate squeeze. “Such a shame!” Penny voiced with her beautiful eyes closed and Ruby running out of breath slowly in her vice grip, even with her flesh overlay and her restrained focus, she was still squishing her cute little rose just as tad. “I suppose the others will miss out on these cuddles” the ginger exclaimed with glee, hoping someone else in the house would hear her and come running to start one of their usual cuddle puddles. 

No one heard except Winter. 

Unfortunately by the time her hurried feet made it down the stairs in nothing but some white silken underwear and a casual white t-shirt with the words ‘big sis’ in a light blue over the white, the doorbell rang. 

Outside the house looked entirely different from it’s erratic and almost chaotic interior of almost all the seventeen girlfriends running around trying to find sleepwear, set up the kitchen for the incoming food and then reorganising the living space furniture so they could all sit next to dear Penny as she played as ‘Winter Shepard’. 

In fact from the dimly light outside with the quaint street lights and the fireflies swirling around, the light winter breeze coming in as the season slowly but surely changed into the full blister of winter. The house itself was rather small, on a street of equally and identically small houses, reminding the blue haired pizza delivery boy hopping of his scooter of a street named ‘Grimmauld Place’ from a book he’d read a dozen or so times when lazing about with his friends. There was a blackly painted rail fence leading up with the small stack of plated steps to the ebony front door; the rest of the house from the outside was an appealing creamish or white colour, but it was slightly harder to tell with the orange glow from the richly accented street lights. 

Overall it seemed like a well off neighbourhood with all the houses looking much the same underneath with an individual face to each, telling slightly of the families inside such homes. The house the blue haired boy was stepping up to had a small garden made with a moderately sized wooden lawn seat out front to gaze out into the nearby park. The grass was a lush verdant and kempt, really cared for, and it showed who lived inside.

He gave the three stories a quick scan, seeing all the windows with the curtains drawn, no doubt the house was shared by just women and when he rang the doorbell, the door was opened, and he was greeted by a rather tall brunette with a lavish strand of caramel hair flowing down the right side of her quite beautiful face. 

She wasn’t as tall as Neptune, the blue haired delivery boy, but she was still at least six foot to his eyes, and he felt as if he had seen her before. It was the black beret that she wore, even in her brown and lacy short night gown with black shorts. Although she looked as if she was missing something. 

“Uh, I have your pizza,” Neptune spoke, not seeing into the living space just a few feet to the right. If only he did, he’d see his old friends Ruby and Penny, just as an even taller and more flawless woman with accentuated curves and luscious snow white hair walked towards the television playing some strange tune. “Sorry I’m a little, uh, late there was a diversion about four blogs before the suburbs. At least they’re still piping hot,” Neptune smiled and rubbed the back of his neck in his sudden shyness, he was still trying to figure out who she was, and she was still missing something about her face. 

“Coco!” 

The voice came from the top of the stairs and when both Coco Adel and Neptune instinctively looked, they both saw the tanned dark skin and then the malty mint hair of the lovely looking Emerald Sustrai, in a pajama tank top of mint to match her hair with grey slack pants that were her most comfortable pair. 

She made her way down the stairs as Coco turned back to Neptune and smiled her usual confidently sultry smile, the same smile she shot to most bystanders when they saw her and more than one of her girlfriends together. The heavy gunner brunette was handed her usual aviators from the mint haired darling as she made her way into the kitchen area and readied the counter for serving. 

“Thanks babe, can’t believe I forgot them,” Coco called back to her girlfriend heading kitchen side with a light tap on her firm and beautiful rear, as was Coco’s usual display of affection for all her girlfriends. Once the shades covered her eyes she could finally stop squinting and Neptune fully came into view to her.

And to him with her shades covering her mellow brown eyes she finally reminded him of the girl he’d met over a year ago. She looked just like the monster of a huntress he’d seen in passing at the Breach of Vale, the leader of Team CFVY and the girl with the jewelry box that morphed into the amazingly powerful heavy minigun. Neptune remembered seeing the weapon rip through a Deathstalker in a single barrage, and then do the same to a proud Nevermore as it flew overhead. Coco Adel tore both of the mighty Grimm in half with the simplest of ease as she kept her partner and rumoured, at least to Neptune because he wasn’t actually enrolled at Beacon and was only staying in Vale because his boyfriend never wanted to return to Haven, girlfriend Velvet back from the action. 

Neptune was suddenly dumbstruck a little, holding the still piping hot pizzas in his slowly burning hands. “Oh! You’re Coco Adel!” 

Coco winked from behind her sunglasses and took the stack of pizza boxes with a light smile. “Yep!” She grunted, taking the stack from the blue haired boy and whistling to the remaining girls upstairs and behind the master sofa in the living room just as Penny was beginning to start up her saved game and ready the mission. 

“Ladies!” Coco yelled up the stairs to Yang mainly, who was taking the most time with her hair for once, washing it and making sure the volume was prominent enough to last the short sleep they were all going to get for the journey to Mistral. “Food’s here! Get your ass down here blondie!” Ther gunner yelled again.

Ruby dashed quickly into the kitchen and then dashed quickly back with the small pot of lien notes gathered from all the girls for the food, all while Weiss sneakily stole her seat next to the synthetic ginger in the middle of the couch. 

“Neptune?!” Ruby beamed as she stopped, pressing a kiss into Coco’s neck, not being able to even reach the brunette’s cheek due to their height difference, even when Coco wasn’t in her heels. The little caped girl with the red highlights in her hair gasped upon spotting her old friend as he was handed the money plus his rapid response tip. “Why are you delivering pizza?” She asked a little confused as to why he was even still in Vale to begin with, and then why he was riding around on a piece of metal that looked like it could be swallowed whole by Bumblebee’s immense horsepower. 

“Yeah, why haven’t you gone back to Haven yet?” Weiss asked, blushing just a tiny bit upon seeing Neptune, remembering her, as she considered it, ‘foolish and violently nonsensical crush’ on the blue haired and sophisticated huntsman in training. 

He rubbed the back of his head again, blushing himself in embarrassment of Ruby and Weiss catching with his side job. 

“Well, Sun didn’t really want to leave again, he really likes it here,” Neptune began to explain, checking the money Ruby had handed him as Coco took the stack of pizzas into the kitchen ready to serve as Emerald and Glynda soon joined her, the twins and Neo following down the stairs. 

The two redheads of JNPR came down together also, waving to Neptune with beautiful smiles as they made their way into the kitchen too, taking their seats by the counter and not daring to disturb Glynda and Emerald as they sorted whose pizza was whose and then slicing it all up for servings. The blonde professor simply hoped they were all hungry enough because there was no way they could keep the leftovers in the fridge as they lived it up in Mistral and Atlas.

“So we got an apartment and dropped out of Haven for a year, we’ll go back in the fall, but we’re saving up, that’s why I have this side job, as well as others,” Neppy explained, stuffing his fair but generous tip into his wallet and shoving the rest of the money into his belt pocket bag. 

Ruby looked a little puzzled at first. There was no way the pair had to save up so much lien to simply get back to Haven, hell, Sun would rather walk than waste money on transport when it cost so much. 

“Wait, why are you saving so much Neptune?” The little reaper asked, perplexed at the thought. She thought it so odd that he of all people would need to save, especially when Weiss had told her in passing his family weren’t exactly impoverished, but rather well off and sustained. 

The blue haired boy pulled out another scrap of paper from his pocket, a small sheet with, from what Ruby could tell, jewels, even rings scattered around the page. Ruby’s eyes could spot sapphire coloured circlets and emerald sparkles, dull onyxs and warm golds. After a second of Ruby looking at the small selection of rings she figured out what Neptune was getting at and her eyes widened, her mouth circling and opening wide. His finger came over one near the middle of the page, a circlet of black steel embroidered with a cool light gold working through with a tiny glow of pale sapphire around the middle. 

It looked spectacular. 

“That’s why I’m saving,” Neptune breathed, his breath becoming slightly hitched as he thought about his intentions. He may have been his tall and confident self, fearful of water from his childhood yes but certainly confident, but whenever he thought about the looming probability of him having to take the knee, present his beloved faunus with his chosen ring and ask him the question, Neptune’s fingers seized up and began to tingle, and his knees grew weak. At least he would be kneeling when the time came to ask. 

“I’m gonna ask Sun to marry me.”

Both Ruby and Weiss leaped into a hug with the blue haired romantic, even to a point where the heiress kissed his cheek in her excitement as they both swooned. Never did anyone think Neptune would even make his move on Sun, not for his lack of affection for the monkey faunus, but for his excessive and rather stupid flirting spree with Blake, which had caused Yang to punch the wall of her team’s old dorm many a times, as well as Pyrrha trying to calm her girlfriend down. 

Anyone could see how queer Sun was, and how deep his crush for Neptune went, and yet he would always kid himself or try to cover his ways by making terrible moves on the feline faunus. Thus as more and more girlfriends joined the relationship, the more and more became annoyed at all the unreciprocated flirting. 

“Neptune! That’s awesome!” The snow white heiress in her high end nightgown swooned just as a small beeper on the delivery boy’s belt buckle began to sound off. He was tragically out of time and thus meant he had to leave and get back to his job. And in many ways just in time, as Ruby checked back into the kitchen and saw that the girls had nearly finished serving slices for everyone, and yet still Yang, Blake and a few other of the ladies had not returned from the upper floors. 

The delivery boy sighed, explaining he had to leave rather rapidly, for there was probably another order that was going to need delivering. 

“Honestly why is she taking so long? She never takes this much time with her hair usually,” Winter remarked from the kitchen with Emerald and a few other of the girls, Pyrrha and Neo, referring to the fiery blonde keeping up both Blake and Neon no doubt as even the twins wandered into the kitchen. “Melanie, what’s keeping them so long?” The specialist asked, passing a plate of slices to Nora who was practically jumping in her seat for her food. 

Melanie smirked a little, wiping some wetness from her lips and licking it from her index as her twin took a seat next to Pyrrha, receiving a warming kiss from the auburn haired beauty. 

The white and mint Malachite twin took a pause, not wanting to tell why the sun dragon was taking so long with her faunus girlfriends. “They’ll be right down, I think,” she settled, quickly taking her seat next to her more reddish sister. 

By the time Yang Xiao Long came down the staircase slowly with one of the straps of her defiantly sunkissed orange tank top draped over her shoulder, giving everyone a good guess as to what had been taking her so long, Neptune had left on his pitiful delivery scooter and most of the girls were transitioning into the sitting area with their plates of pizza to watch Penny with her latest mission as ‘Winter Shepard’. 

Her in game character was named as such because Penny looked at her ravishing and senior girlfriend as very much a leader and a bold figure in her synthetic life. Already both Penny and Winter had been through a monumental amount in transitioning from Atlas and the military institution to the more liberal and free grounds of Beacon and the less cramped down town of Vale itself. It was so much more liberating and Penny looked up to her defending girlfriend, especially with what she was going through at the time, she had to name her Shepard after Winter. 

It made it all the more sweet and intimate when dear Winter dressed as Miranda Lawson for Halloween and enticed the sweet, synthetic and sensual Penny into the kitchen in an effort to recreate the engine compartment of the Normandy. 

The night made for some of the best roleplay Penny had ever been treated to.

It also made Winter invest in some anti-chafing cream.

“So I said; ‘Bumbleby? More like Pollination’ am I right?” The blonde dragon boomed to the faunus girlfriends on either side of her as she and the rest, last of the girls all gathered their plates of two to three slices of still warm and almost irresistible pizza, with the cheese still oozing out onto the porcelain. 

The girls’ favourite toppings all varied, from the various and filling meats of chicken, spiced beef, meatballs even parma ham and salamis that the more well built and not as reserved girls found tantalising to their developed or developing tastebuds, to the steamed and verdant veg and small fruits that girls such as Pyrrha or even Winter enjoyed.

Yang and Neon squeezed into the comfortable armchair with just enough space space to make it snug as Blake sat on their laps with her slice. Of course it would be laced with anchovies and the little feline faunus was nibbling on the end as cute as she could with the rest of her girlfriends looking at her, even Penny with the controller in hand. 

“What?” Blake asked timidly as she kept her slice of pizza close to her coiled breast as Yang and Neon both giggled a little to themselves before a small peck between them. “What are you all looking at?” The onyx haired feline asked again, looking between the white heiress, the auburn hoplite and the even more timid faunus. 

Glynda, Nora and the twins were nearly bursting with laughter, completely touched at how undeniably adorable Blake looked, curled up alone the laps of her buxom blonde and pastel faunus counterpart. She looked just like she did whenever the girls ordered a large package that arrived in a wide box, such as the armchair or the sofa, the chester drawers or the book bureau in the grand bedroom. Blake always loved the boxes, never the contents, even when Yang and Ruby splurged out on a floral tea set for her. 

Of course Blake used the tea set all the time, but not as much as she used the box. 

“What are you looking at really? Do I have something on my face?” The content and adorable woman asked, flinching a little to feel around her mouth. She was suddenly surrounded by eyes, a little intruding and all surrounding. 

Quickly, Yang snatched up the adorable faunus in her arms and gave her a tight squeeze, holding her close and kissing her lovingly, as Neon indulged her own fishy lust and took a sneaky bite of the pizza slice. 

“Yang! Neon!” Blake yelled a little as she was caressed and scooped up in a warm embracing hug and hold by her girlfriends, loving her all over as the others giggled and swooned themselves. 

Pyrrha rested her auburn head on Ruby’s little shoulders as she nibbled her own slice of parma ham pizza with Winter holding her dear snowflake next to her, into her side as they both indulged themselves on their pineapple and ham slices. Emerald, Neo, Nora and Glynda held each other and chuckled lovingly as the display carried on, all the way until Blake, Neon and Yang were all exchanging deep kisses and holding each other close. 

Another affectionate display of paradise. They were all in love. 

By the time Penny had loaded her game and the pizza was avidly being scooped up and eaten, nibbled and munched by the scattered girls all over the living room, the twins moving to the arms of the armchair with Neon and Yang as Blake had moved over to join Coco and Velv. Glynda was cuddling with Emerald just as she did almost every night when the little gem grew tired before the rest, it was just her habit. They were all content and ready for the night together, at last, all prepared for Penny. Pyrrha and Yang even knew what was to come, and thus prepped Ruby, Winter and Ciel, who were all close to the gamer when she stumbled onto the section of narrative that would spark her emotion software and make her weep. 

Penny was currently on the cusp of completing her second phase main story point and was fully engrossed in her character, her team, her mission and exactly what was going on in her fully visualised world. She had grown almost attached to her comrades inside the game and particularly to one synthetic character by the name of Legion. Despite him not being on Penny’s squad, she’d had extensive development with the synth and was growing more and more attached to him. He was growing such a conscience and his parallels to Penny herself were transcending the storyline of the game and reaching out to her as the person, as the girl she was becoming.

She admired and liked Legion, more than most of the other characters. 

“Yang? Pyrrha?” Little Penny asked across the room as her game loaded to her last save point, right before she was about to blow up a strategic ‘Reaper Base’ on the Quarians home planet of Rannoch, such a key and pivotal point in the game and in the narrative. The story thus far had informed Penny as well as her teammates and girlfriends, that if ‘Winter Shepard’ could not destroy the base in time, the entire species of the Quarians would be wiped out before she could get another chance. It was only a game, but already the narrative had left one of her favourite characters dead, and another shortly after him, and both at critical story moments. So of course Penny was nervous for her friend Legion. 

“How hard is this mission? In terms of what I have left to fight?” The ginger synth asked timidly, currently slotted in between the other side of Winter and Ciel and looking determined to finish Rannoch and save both the Quarians and their foes, the also synthetic but also savable Geth, whom Legion was looking to redeem with himself.

Pyrrha looked to the blonde brawler, still picking apart her pizza and feeding little pieces to Neon and the twins. They both knew what was coming, they both knew how heartbroken Penny was going to be and thusly silently prepared for it, passing the signal to Winter and to Rubles. 

The redhead peered over to look her little girlfriend in the eyes. “Not that hard Penny. All you have to do it lace up the center point and the Normandy will do the rest,” she instructed, pointing to the main balcony of the level of building Penny was exploring. 

She flicked her controller sticks forward as the rest of the girls watched tentatively, Glynda looking to her little gem and giving Emerald a light kiss as the loving mood fully settled on the living room. 

Ruby looked up to Pyrrha and offered her some of her double cheese pizza as the taller warrior woman offered a taste of her parma ham slice in exchange. They both ate and smiled at the mixture of the same flavours in their mouths. It was most pleasant and Ruby felt the urge to sit up and rub her nose lightly and adorably across Pyrrha’s in the engrossed near silence as they finished their bites. “Love you Pyrrha,” Ruby whispered and the redhead smiled, closed her piercing emerald eyes and took her little rose in for a loving kiss. At the same time Penny laced up the objective with her targeting laser and the game took over her progress. 

Her ship, the Normandy came flying into view, dropping a payload of explosives onto the glowing crimson center of the main command area of the base. The blast was thunderous, forcing her character to fall from the balcony and down into the blast radius after the flames had subsided. 

“Well that’s just a design oversight,” Winter voiced finishing off the last of her pizza as Weiss cuddled up to her warmly.

“They’re Geth, they don’t need safety rails Winter, they’re robots and don’t make silly mistakes like that,” Yang called from the armchair as the scene played out on the television scene. 

Penny jumped in her seat as from the middle of the base rose a large lobster like claw. “What on Remnant? A Reaper?” The ginger exclaimed, getting up a little from her slouch and looking engrossed fully into the screen. She had only seen two total Reapers be slain in all three of the games thus far and had never destroyed one from the ground on her own without the Normandy or a giant Thresher Maw. “How am I meant to kill it, guys?” 

Neon mewed from the chair, playing with one of Yang’s saved pieces of reed that she used with Blake. The onyx haired feline was even eying it up from across the room as the twins chuckled.

“Nya,” the multicoloured faunus mewed with her lips curled. “Just get the Normandy back right? That’s what you have the ship for isn’t it?” She was correct to degree as Pyrrha knew. She was holding Ruby ever closer still with their plates stacked on the floor with everyone else’s. 

Winter intertwined her fingers with her younger sisters, all while Glynda was lovingly braiding her little gem’s mint coloured hair for the small amount of sleep they would all have. Neo was also simply sitting contently across the room, looking a little alone as the rest of the girls were all surrounding Penny and viewing her game playing and the drama unfolding.

Neopolitan was simply holding her little tub of nightly ice cream close to her bust in her small set of pajamas with her feet tucked in close to her. It was her favourite flavour too; neapolitan with all three flavours swirled around and mixed perfectly by her iconic spoon, the one she had won in her cereal the first week she lived with the girls. And a funny story it was too. 

The ice cream lady was missing her partner a little, after the whole fiasco she was surprised she was, and thus asked for some Pumpkin Pete’s cereal by writing it on the shopping list with a plethora of cat smiley faces and text hearts because she was a little to scared to directly ask Yang and Pyrrha. With a little flutter of her chocolate and strawberry eyes Neo soon got through to her blonde ex-rival and by the next morning she was shoveling flakes into her little mouth. 

As she finished the box of really unhealthy cereal within three days, considering she was taking bowls into the shower with her as well as everywhere else around the house, she was greeted with a small prize. A spoon. A novelty spoon at that and to Pyrrha’s extreme embarrassment, it was a spoon with her beautiful face on the end of the hilt. 

Neo absolutely adored it, even more when Pyrrha and herself really bonded. 

The redhead looked toward Neo’s direction, seeing her tucked in and simply slowly devouring the whole contents of her ice cream tub. She looked a little sad and alone, vulnerable, and to Pyrrha’s mind, perhaps thinking of Roman or even Cinder, wherever they may be. The whole detachment process from the criminal element for Neo had still not yet fully left her. 

In her best effort to make the little mute feel the slightest bit better about herself, Pyrrha held up her hand, looking directly at Neo, who saw the precious emerald eyes and smiled instantly. Pyrrha folded her ring finger into her palm, holding up her pinky finger and her middle finger, with her thumb out on end. Then she folded her index finger around the inside of her middle finger. 

Neo’s face completely lit up, like a neon sign as she saw Pyrrha across the room. Pyrrha was signing for the tri-colored beauty, using her hand to sign the words “I really love you” across the room to Neo. 

She leapt from her chair, almost sprinting to join the tall redhead and the small one with red highlights and nearly forgetting her tub of ice cream and Pyrrha spoon. Stopping in the middle of the gap, obscuring Emerald’s view of the television as Penny and her team scrambled to get away from the ensuing Reaper. Em didn’t mind, she was enjoying her hair being sensually played with by her loving mistress. 

In the same style as Pyrrha has, Neo held her hands up and rather slowly signed out her words, not wanting to bother with her PDA. “Can’t forget my special spoon” Neo signed with her smile threatening to burst her jawline. Quickly then she turned and grabbed her ice cream and Pyrrha spoon, flopping on the warrior woman’s lap shortly after and feeding little Rubles a small spoon of her cool treat after, making the teen smile and shudder with a small edge of brain freeze. Pyrrha cuddled them both with a loving wave and they looked back to the television. 

“Okay, just gotta blast this thing to dust and then Rannoch’s safe right?” Penny asked from her lowly lean from the couch, looking ever deeper into the television. She was fully involved and Yang and Pyrrha looked a little in a state of dread as the rest of the girls surrounded Penny. Ciel was already leaned with her girlfriend, holding her and with her the entire way on the journey. If she could pry her hand from the controller, Ciel would hold it. Having said that, she double checked her watch to make sure the house had time before bed; they all needed what little sleep they could get before the long and grueling car ride to the airport, then the flight to Mistral. And Ciel could swear she was missing or forgetting something, some small detail of the trip.

“Just keep moving when he blasts, and then nail it right in the cannon. Penny, you got this.” Yang encouraged, sitting up and pulling Militia onto her lap, being slightly taller than the twin. Neon did the same with Melanie and mewed again. 

Suddenly everyone was sitting on edge, even the sleepy Weiss and her caring sister Winter, planting a loving kiss on the top of her head as she held onto the younger Schnee. Weiss must have been dreaming a little because she would simply not let go of Winter for dear life. She was an anchor for the taller woman and Velvet couldn’t help but squeak to herself when she saw Weiss stirr. Coco gave her faunus a smooch on the cheek when she heard the unintentional happy exclamation. 

“You’ve got this Penny!” Ruby shouted as the small ginger pursed her tongue between her lips and focused, the music in the background getting more and more intense as the girls grew silent and lowly, wanting their girlfriend to win. 

Under their breath, simultaneously both Blake, Yang and Neon all began to make high pitched beats with their hums and whistles. Emerald and Winter had to cover their mouths as they figured out exactly what the trouble makers were doing to put Penny wholeheartedly into the tension and action her Shepard was living. 

Velvet chuckled and joined in with her higher pitched whistling wooing, causing Coco to laugh a little and then ready her voice. They were performing an organic rendition of ‘The Final Countdown’ for Penny to destroy the Reaper to, and it was really working as she dodged blast of laser after another. 

“Come on Penny! Kill the thing! You can do it!” Ruby, Winter, Ciel and Emerald all shouted almost as Coco and Winter sang the lyrics to their organic and all female band. 

Penny dodged her last laser blast from her gigantic foe and quickly turned to its menacing crimson dark eye, aiming her targeting laser directly at the center of it. “Take this Reaper!” Penny yelled in a voice very much like Winter’s as her created Winter Shepard in game and the N7 Commander squeezed the trigger of her weapon, and the Quarian Fleet in orbit hailed down a ring of fire directly down upon the Reaper, obliterating it and destroying it utterly. 

The girls jumped up from their seats and all surrounded their player in a torrential downpour of hugs, cuddles and warm embraces. Penny had defeated the Reaper single handedly and on her first attempt, not a metaphorical sweat broken at all as Ciel and Ruby both kissed her on either cheek, followed by Winter kissing her on her lips, Weiss awoken and celebrating too with her girlfriend. 

“I did it! I killed the Reaper!” Penny cried, so happy. It was almost unfair as Yang and Pyrrha looked at each other with weary eyes, not ones of celebration now jubilee. 

Penny was about to be crushed so quickly after her victory. 

“Penny,” Pyrrha called out, wrapping her synthetic girlfriend in a warm hug with the fiery blonde following and joining the embrace. “You may not want to celebrate just yet. The mission isn’t done.”

The ginger looked to the screen with her smile fading a little as she saw Legion stand on their own attempting to input their altered AI code to the entirety of their fellow Geth, to advance them and make them exactly like themself, a fully evolved artificial intelligence; Pyrrha and Yang knew what that would take in the realms of the game and the narrative. 

“Error: Copying code is insufficient,” Legion voiced, through their synthetic filter and sounding all of bass and techno, part of their charm. That was when Penny’s face began to drain, when her super computer brain took over and started to run scenarios over inside. What they were attempting really only had one other option. 

Legion would have to upload their own person code into the Geth Consensus and thus, wipe themself from their body to be dispersed. 

“Legion don’t!” Penny cried at the television.

“Direct Personal Dissemination… Required,” Legion voiced again and stepped forward again, turning to Winter Shepard in the game as Penny outside of the game began to tear up a little as Ciel and Pyrrha sat with her. “Shepard; Commander. I… I’m sorry. I must go to them.”

The Geth stepped out onto the earthy plateau formed like a cliff, their circuitry glowing all different colours of the rainbow as tears began to fall from Penny’s face outside of the television. She was rather emotional, identifying so much with Legion as a fellow synthetic entity and to see him slowly die like she was, it was getting her. It felt like she was losing someone just like her, a fellow synth and it made her so sad. 

“Legion!” Penny cried as the synth’s lifeless and drained body fell to the floor, the consciousness of Legion scattering all over Rannoch and it’s orbit, changing the entire species to be more like them. And yet Penny didn’t care. She felt just as she hoped all her teammates did in game, heartbroken that he was gone. 

Pyrrha held Penny close, sinking to the floor as Ciel, Yang and then slowly the rest of the girlfriends surrounded them all, diving into a spontaneous cuddle puddle with little Penny in the center as she cried over Legion, over losing her little and somewhat rare piece of representation in the game. It hurt, more than Pyrrha would have expected it to. 

The lowly ginger synth was tugged lovingly into little Ruby’s, Ciel’s and Neo’s arms as Pyrrha and Winter surrounded them and held the cuddle formation for much of the rest of the rest of the night, with Glynda, Emerald, Weiss and Neon slowly falling asleep as Yang and Blake had moved entirely to a makeshift bedding made on the rug in front of the television.

Once again, almost as always when the sleepy feline teen was wrapped in her partner’s arms over the others Blake sank into a lowly purr while her exposed second set of ears, fur and all atop her beautiful head began to wiggle slowly as she lay content. 

Yang let out a soft hum as the faunus purred in her arms, holding her close in soft retort as all the girls maintained their loved up and simply melodic silence, or near silence. 

Finally, the little gem became unresponsive in her mistress’s arms while their selected movie, another of the ‘Dust Wars’ movies that some of the girls sadly missed in Glynda’s class that very day, playing in the background once again. Not that any of them were really watching it. Most were just lying contently with their girlfriends surrounding them, with arms over waists, holding other arms, playing with luscious and silky hair of shades of red, orange, blonde and black, with the occasional strand of white whenever Weiss leaned herself up to make out with Winter yet again and then switch to Nora and to Ruby. 

It was the same set of loveliness that Nora and Pyrrha had felt together so many times before, however it was not just the two of them, but all of them. And Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang had too felt the level of intimacy, in showers and such all before, when they were just a foursome and learning and discovering each other’s bodies; Ruby truly discovering her own mostly at the more invigorating touch of her dear elder sister. Weiss understood. 

“Well,” Glynda spoke softly, barely more than a whisper as she did, moving ever so gently and carefully, trying her hardest not to stir her little gem who was determined in her sleep to never let go of the witch. She looked to Winter mainly, her almost aged equal in the household and the one who would assume command when Glynda fled up the stairs with her gem. “I think I should take little Em to bed. She’s completely finished I think.”

Yang could not help but let out a soft giggle, still in a whisper as she muffled her mouth. She had only one suspicion of why Emerald was so tired but she also knew it was the correct reason. Blake, Coco, Velvet and Pyrrha looked at the dragon with an almost glare due to her muffled giggling. 

Glynda also knew why her blonde dragon was laughing up a storm as the movie played in the background and Blake tried her best to keep the girlfriend quiet. It was because of the little ‘adventure’ Glynda had taken her little gem on in the confines of her classroom’s back closet earlier that very day. 

“I know why Em’s a lil tired--” Yang narrowly completed just before Blake forced her lips against her own and swiftly inserted her feline tongue to explore in the overactive cove of Yang’s mouth yet again. It was Blake’s go to response in times such as that. 

But nonetheless, Glynda discreetly slid from her position on the far end of the couch and just as sneakily, slipped her hands and arms under Emerald’s sleeping and still flawlessly beautiful frame and picked her up from her sleeping amalgamation of limbs and body, the little gem was even drooling just a tad from her lips. She was so limp and so deep in slumber, all any of the girls could really do when they saw how far away Emerald’s mind was and how engaged she was with the sandman, was swoon with heavy eyes sparkling as Glynda took her to stairs. 

“Winter, girls, please don’t stay up too late,” the professor pleaded with her girlfriends from the bottom of the stairs, holding her gem close as she sunk further and further into the lands of dreams. Hopefully she was having fluorescent visions of their impending vacation, or lovely and vivid constructions of all seventeen of the girls together, either on the beaches of sunny and developed Mistral, a bigger city than Vale, or high atop the snowy peaks of the Atlas mountain range Weiss and Winter had managed to secure from their father, who still did not know of their relationship, with anyone. 

Sturm Schnee was a cold man. Stern. Unaccepting. Set in his ways. He cared for the Schnee dust company and little else. This, of course, included his children producing heirs to pass the company on to. Learning about his two daughters being in relationships with other women, as well as each other, would be cause for disowning them. 

Next Coco stood up, Velvet instinctively following as her heavy gunner team leader stretched and clicked all the muscles and joints in her back that had fallen asleep as they watched Penny play her game, growing sad over the loss of her beloved Legion, and then all sinking into their state of comfort as Dust Wars played in the background. As Ciel and Pyrrha both scanned the room, Penny and Ruby in their arms, they could both see that Coco and the bunny faunus both had sleep deprivation etched into their eyes also, considering they had not experienced the same adventure as Emerald and Glynda during class. 

They too soon disappeared up the stairs and to the empress sized bed to snuggle up to Glynda and Emerald. The mattress was always so soft and always so inviting with the memory foam and rich sheets with pillows scattered all around the hanging bed. That was Ciel’s and Winter’s design choice, having the bed hanging from the ceiling rather than simply being placed somewhere. It made for the more spontaneous nightly adventures to be more exciting, and for Nora, a little dangerous at times, due to falling off from every angle a possibility. 

Winter stirred next, waking up her back muscles and joints with a wide arm stretch. Weiss soon became fully awake at that and looked around to see a lack of mint, blonde and two sets of brunette hair. 

Ruby had to sigh. “Aw, don’t tell me you’re going to bed too Winter. Weiss?” The little raven and red haired reaper whined from within the crook of Pyrrha’s arm. She didn’t want anymore of her lovers to go up, not while she was still untired and full of her usual gleefulness and bubbliness. Pyrrha gave a little giggle and popped a smile for her little bubbly girlfriend in her rose pajamas. 

“My, my, still so full of energy little Rose,” Winter remarked blissfully in her flowing melodic voice. Her tones were always like music to everyone’s ears. Such a beautiful voice from a beautiful face. Ruby blushed in retort, feeling slightly embarrassed as she looked around the room. The taller redhead brushed noses with the reaper, a little eskimo kiss for little Ruby Rose as she blushed adorably, like a child never wanting to go to bed at night because she was so excited for the morning on the horizon. 

The hoplite hummed again, holding Ruby in her lap now and smiling a small, cute smile as Yang, Blake, and the twins moved to sit on the floor under the couch. Neon and Neo shifted, the ice cream lady lazily joining the multicoloured feline on the armchair for a second and trying not to fall asleep. 

“Isn’t she just so energetic,” Pyrrha lulled to little Ruby in between soft kisses to her cheek, all while Neo rubbed her eyes and then escorted the half asleep Neon Katt up the stairs, all with all four of their eyes closed, Melanie looked off the side to see the sleepy ice cream lady lead the feline up the steps, having to contain her ‘aww’ from behind her closed lips and palm. “Ruby we have to go to bed at some time,” the tall redhead warrior woman peeped again, smiles and all as she kissed Ruby all the more with Winter beginning to run her slender fingers through Weiss’s long and flowing hair. 

They were all truly growing more tired. All except Ruby Rose. 

“Hey Yang?” Militia asked the blonde dragon seemingly out of nowhere as Blake climbed up to the couch and snuggled in between Weiss and Penny. The twins were really quiet and bordering on silent most nights, getting tired early and keeping together. 

The fiery blonde turned her lovely lilac eyes to meet the twins, with both Militia and Melanie gesturing for Yang. There were two purple pens in their hands, revealing how the twins wanted to unleash their perfect talent of henna drawings. Yang’s metallic arm with the flesh mesh would be their latest canvas. 

Yang’s eyes fluttered a little as she blew a little kiss and extended her more synthetic arm towards the twins. “Sure babes, you can draw on my arm, I always love the patterns you draw on Nora and Emerald.”

“Ooooh, you can draw on me too later or on the plane tomorrow” Ruby piped up with her over energetic vigor, with a closed eyed smile too. 

As the twins began working together on the flowing flowery and dotted patterns along Yang’s arm, which Melanie was working on as Militia dotted her way around her girlfriend’s hand and fingers, Blake slithered down the couch once again, while Weiss and Nora came together for a sweet kiss before treating Yang to the same. The onyx haired faunus reached the gap that Yang’s crop top created between her bust and her waist, the lusciously exposed section of abdominal muscles that always felt so tender and perfect to touch. 

In such a lovely flow the girls slowly began to completely dote on the dragon, while Ruby and Pyrrha continued their eskimo kissing and normal kissing, smiling together and loving each other. Winter was very much doing the same, holding her little Penny close as she softly kissed her lips, even Ciel doing the to her cheeks and then Winter’s lips, feeling the taller specialists hips and soft plump flesh of her rear. 

There was no speaking, for again there was completely no need. They were all engaged into each other, Melanie and Militia tentatively working their artistic magic all over Yang Xiao Long’s arm and hand. Nora and Weiss kissing the top of her forehead and each other, and sinking their fingers into the flowing, long and silky locks of bright yellow, feeling so warm and soft. And Blake, holding her partner close, and planting soft and gay kisses all over the abdominal muscles of her blonde girlfriend, making her sigh, giggle and moan sweetly at all the attention she was receiving. 

It was beautiful, magical, silent, and exactly what made the whole relationship so unique and loving.

However, due to Winter and Pyrrha’s continuing and increasing rate of chastising and warnings about the state of all their girlfriends come the morning after, they all did eventually go to bed. Although it was after Yang’s entire right arm was covered in the twins’ beautiful drawings of purple and lilac to match her eyes, after Weiss and Nora had almost made the other’s mouth quite dry from their amount of sweet kisses while playing and running their fingers through the blonde locks of the cozy dragon, and after Blake had almost gotten herself too riled up from all the attention she was giving to her girlfriend’s abdominal muscles. However little Ruby, in her rebellion to not go to bed, managed to swipe Militia’s marker, and brush a comedic and tiny moustache on Pyrrha’s top lip. 

The redhead had paused for longer than a second, at which point Nora pulled a concerned face, as if something was extremely wrong with drawing on a funny moustache on the taller girlfriend, but as soon as Ruby stifled her laughing and saw the odd look on the faces around her, she removed her graffiti from Pyrrha and warmed her with an embrace. It was followed by an adorable yawn and a quick but heartfelt apology. That was then Pyrrha knew Ruby was tired and had been all along, she was still the youngest. 

All that were left hazily and all at once retreated to the upstairs bedroom, taking off clothes as they went and handing them back to Winter, who volunteered to ready them for the laundry. 

Yang held Blake close as the group lazily climbed the stairs to the bedroom, taking her fingers into the palm of her hand and wrapping her drawn on arm around Blake’s perfect waistline. Yellow cat eyes turned and met loving lilac, just as the sleepy blonde unleashed a wide yawn. They were at the rear of the group, the last to come up the stairs and when Blake was met with such a yawn, such a confident and comfortable one, she smiled and even giggled to her partner and girlfriend. Her head dropped a little, and found itself resting on Yang’s shoulder. 

They lagged behind a little, spotting Nora let out the same yawn and receiving a kiss from Nora and Ciel as they turned into the bedroom. 

“Can you believe this time tomorrow we’ll be in Mistral?” Yang asked the onyx haired feline held close to her. The excitement was even getting to Yang, who was rarely phased by anything good because she could just go along with it. “I can’t wait to get in that ocean with you Blakey.”

“I’ve,” Blake hesitated, when they stopped on the second floor. “I’ve never been to Mistral before. The only ocean I’ve really seen is Vale’s,” she edged out, a little embarrassed, a little shameful thinking back to why and when she was by the coast. With the White Fang. And Adam. 

Yang didn’t overreact as she usually would, instead she simply hummed with a content smile. Placing one hand on Blake’s right cheek Yang pulled the faunus in for a warm, melting, heavy and personal kiss of passion and sparks. 

“Don’t worry babe, you’ll see so much of Mistral’s ocean,” the blonde looked down to her chest with a sultry and sly look on her tired face then too. “And besides. Wait until you and everyone else sees these puppies in my new two piece.”

They laughed, giggled even, then kisses again, warm and loving before finally joining the rest of their sleepy or sleeping girlfriend in the bedroom. They snuggled in right next between Coco holding Velvet and Emerald holding Neo who was then holding Nora. 

And it took a whole two minutes for Glynda to suddenly wake from her seemingly light sleep in a hurry, flipping up and tossing the sheets away from herself and the girls around her. 

“Wait. We forgot something!” The professor yelled, a little too loudly which indicated her seriousness. 

“I knew it!” Ciel responded, sitting up too as the rest of the girls, all but Weiss, Velvet and Emerald stirred.

Glynda looked around the room, trying to hopefully dissuade herself from her horrifying thought. She hoped to any higher power that may have existed that she was wrong. Being right would mean they would surely get next to no sleep at all. And how could they all be so careless, how could she have been that careless? The lack of oversight embarrassed her.

“Oh no,” Glynda sighed, spotting the horrible wrong with the room and with the girls, or rather the lack of something in the room. 

“We forgot to pack…"

The private investigator, or at least that was what the card in his assaulter’s hand indicated, was in an extremely perilous situation indeed. He had been snatched just as he was reaching the close proximity of the townhouse registered to Winter Schnee. The very townhouse with every light of the second and third floor on brightly with shadows behind blinders scurrying about collecting clothes and other items. 

Now, the poor gentleman in his suave suit and charcoal trench coat was hanging simply by the mercy and the upper body strength of his apparently female looking captor. However he still couldn’t tell. It was too dark and the woman wear too much an obscuring outfit. At least he thought it looked like a woman. 

She was checking his personal card, spotting the line where it read ‘Private Investigator’, and at that moment threw the very card away, off of her roof perch where she held the PI by his leg for his very life. 

“Who hired you?”

From her deep and yet not so deep tones the PI could definitely tell she was a woman, even over his futile and senseless yelling for her to pull him to safety. And when she did speak, she spoke with a definitive air about her that told him if he did not give an answer, and a truthful one, his head would meet the floor in more than a few seconds. 

His lips trembled but eventually he managed to edge out two words; “Mister” followed by the word “Schnee” which caused the woman to almost seethe in front of him. 

And she let go. 

She tossed the man off of the roof and down the street below, making his death quick and painless as hoped but also the most frightening thing he had ever experienced before his life ended. She was nothing if not efficient and meticulous. And as she turned back to walk off of the roof, either by the staircase or some other method, she grabbed her only two pieces of equipment from a stack of cinderblocks.

A rather grim looking mask resembling a Nevermore quite closely, and a long and brandished katana in a rotating barrel sheath that looked like a long revolver. 

CEO Sturm Schnee was taking an afternoon cup of tea in his office with his handmaidens and butlers surrounding him with trays of letters, cups and a pot of still piping tea. More trays of fresh cake and scones, and more baked desserts of only the highest quality. 

The man was so enveloped in his luxury he barely needed to do anything except oversee his company with an iron fist and meticulously fine toothed comb in order to make yet more money. More so that he could create the life he wanted. More so that he could create the world he wanted. More so that he could create the lineage he wanted. More so that he could safely, or rather unsafely secure his rebellious daughters and sway them back into the lives he had planned for them. 

Sturm saw the note on his desk, the memo reading of how his PI had just been found dead. 

He fiddled with information and left his desk, standing up and picking up the telephone ready to make a series of stressful and precise calls to an all manner of people. He was suddenly furious and needed his matters resolved so quickly but also methodically. 

He wanted his daughter's home, in his house and under his thumb. And he would do anything to get them back. 

“If you want something done right…”

Cinder couldn’t sleep, so many and too many things, voices flowing and flying through her mind, even as Jaune turned and held her closely, even as she laced her fingers in with his, holding his hand close to her breast and even as she tried to block out the very certain voice from entering the inner sanctum of her mind, the one that Jaune and Roman and Mercury had helped her so dearly to create after everything.

But the voices never stopped from trying to get to Cinder, not since she had hurt Emerald so badly and not since the operation had fallen apart so spectacularly and she became a slave to Ozpin and his ‘failsafe’, despite Jaune promising her that he would never ever press that infernal button. But still nothing ever stopped or even stifled the voices in her head, all the tones and shrieking making her want to carve her own head in completely. 

It was pure torture and was driving the poor woman to tears with each passing second. The whispers, the screaming, the fighting, the drumming. All inside her mind and doing their best to drive her insane. 

She heard the screams of the tormented, burned by hellfire and ash, and knew that she was the one causing them such pain.

Tears were forming in her eyes as the swirling motion of the vocals passing through one ear, into her mind and tearing it apart so twistedly only to then escape into her vision centers. They made Cinder see her victims, all the people she had killed and then all the people whom she wished had killed her. 

Until finally she saw the one person she hoped she would never have to see again. 

“No,” Cinder whispered so frantically under her breath, closing her eyes as she saw the red eyes and the white pale face, the cracked skin with more read and purple burning all around. Cinder was completely paralysed. 

Jaune was no longer there, nor was Mercury, the bed too, and Roman was not in the other room asleep in his armchair. For there was no other room, only Cinder on her own and at the mercy of her own mind. And there, in front of her was her last straw, the thing that would surely make her snap on the night before the most important day of all. 

Salem spoke softly, almost maternally. It was only a few words but Cinder would gladly kill herself upon hearing them. Anything to stop herself from obeying that suggestion. That command.

“Kindly, Cinder Fall, would you please kill Ozpin.”

To be Continued…


	11. You Can't Live Forever

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang, Pyrrha, Nora, and Coco and Velvet all return from their date out on the town of Vale to the sight of the familiar Malachite Twins holding an injured Emerald Sustrai and a mysterious girl with ice cream coloured hair that Yang had fought during the Breach. After a stressful night of emotions flying every which way, things settle, but not before Winter Schnee also arrives on the scene as well as Glynda Goodwitch to organise protection for the four criminal girls, and Yang can't help but feeling suspicious still over her oddly cute rival. The four, and Winter stay at Beacon, and Yang finally learns the name of her mysteriously attractive opponent; Neopolitan. The Rainbow grows a little bigger.

The following is an email from Sturm Schnee, CEO of Schnee Dust Company ltd. to [REDACTED], Independent Private Investigator.

Mr. [REDACTED], my name is not important. However, what is important are three facts. The first fact is that I am hiring you.

A certain young woman is currently out of my scope of sight, and I would like for you to find her. Once you do, however, that is not the end of your job. You will then continue to observe her and report into this email account. You will not ask who I am, or why I am hiring you. You will find Winter Schnee, observe her, and report back once a month. 

The second fact is that I never gave you a choice. I am an incredibly powerful man, Mr. [REDACTED], and even if I were to give you a choice, it would be in your best interest to accept, no matter the job.

The third fact is the obscene amount of money you will gain by doing so. Enough to purchase your own island with the profits alone at the end of a five year period, although I doubt you will have to work on this assignment for that long.

Reply as soon as possible. You will be given a bonus and have expenses paid. Begin in Vale.

The following is a reply from [REDACTED] to Sturm Schnee.

I accept. Departing for Vale immediately. 

Yang was not her usual happy self. She was rather tired, exhausted even, and purposely draining her aura. The date had been fun of course, and equally she was not the type of person to let one bad event ruin her whole night. She suspected, however, that this was not going to be just a single mediocre event. This was going to keep happening, like an avalanche, never looking to stop, what was the intensity of the sight that graced Yang and her girlfriends upon their return to the deserted Beacon Academy.

There had lain Emerald Sustrai and Neopolitan, brought to the establishment by two equal looking women Yang herself had had the pleasure of meeting numerous times before coming to Beacon; Melanie and Miltia Malachite. 

“So, what happened after you bandaged them up?” Yang sighed. 

She was glad for two reasons, currently. The first was her healing ability. Not a semblance, like some, but just some low level aura projection, taught to her by her father, Taiyang, during their training together at Signal Academy on the island of Patch. It was not as if she was particularly skilled at the process like her father, but the sun dragon was doing fine enough currently. She had managed to staunch the bleeding coming from both girls, and was currently working on the deeper wounds they had. After Miltia and Melanie had informed the deflated yet still buxom blonde just why the girl with ice cream hair had fought her on the train over six months ago, and what might’ve happened to Yang if she didn’t try to kill her, the blonde remembered the fight pace for pace, move for move and how it had transpired to the letter. 

The blonde remembered seeing the ice cream girl’s limber frame and her flips and tricks, all the adept and adaptive moves that switched on the fly to cooperate with all of Yang’s. That was how the small ice cream girl easily bested possibly the best fighter on Team Rwby apart from her younger sister. The smile on her little face flashed in Yang’s eyes as she blinked, the, at least attractive smile that sparked most if not all of Yang’s attraction centers.

She would at least admit that she found her opponent attractive. 

Yang clenched her fists a few times, trying to remove a few cramps and let the aura flow easier once again. She heard Melanie behind her speak up, responding to one of Coco’s earlier questions. The other reason she was glad was because the other seven girls that had been with her all evening were taking the roles of interrogator, instead of Yang. They had even gotten their weapons before the discussion began, they were in Beacon already and thus the short walk to the locker rooms to collect Crescent Rose, Myrtenaster, Ember Celica for Yang herself, Milo and Manghild. Coco and Velvet hardly needed their overpowered and therefore uncalled for minigun and, unknown box with unknown capabilities. 

They were all currently sat one room down from Team Rwby’s room, which was empty not just during the summer, but for the entire school year. It was intended to be a guest dorm for when it was needed, but it was never needed, for some reason.

“Well, we discussed with Hei- Junior, about where to take them. He kept saying to bring them to their boss-” 

Pyrrha interrupted. “You’re referring to the mysterious ‘superior’ you can’t tell us about?” 

Yang heard only silence before she heard her redheaded goddess politely say “continue,” meaning that Melanie most likely nodded.

“Right, he said to take them to their boss, but... we knew that..” There was suspicious silence again, and when the blonde brawler finally turned, she saw Melanie being cradled in the arms of her sister, Miltia. Yang currently had mixed feelings towards the both of them, in fact she was having mixed feelings about everything, the night, the twins, the ice cream girl, and at that point even Coco and Velvet, despite the amazing night they had all shared.   
On one hand, the first time Yang had met the beautiful and extremely deadly twins, she had punched one of them through a pillar of glass and spun kicked the other’s head into the dance floor. On the other, the second time they met had been a blur of so much alcohol it actually drew Yang into a tipsy haze, which was theoretically impossible due to her aura, and sex, very, extremely good sex, of which Yang could meticulously remember every single second to a tee. On a third, non-existent hand, this was the third time they had met, and they had brought with them two corpses almost, which Yang had felt were now her responsibility, oddly. Maybe it was because the ice cream lady was reminding her of a young Ruby and Emerald was, or least had appeared months ago to be their friend, especially Ruby’s friend.

Sighing, Miltia spoke up. “If we took them to their boss, there was a high chance that... they wouldn’t come back,” she spoke ominously, almost looking to door. Almost looking into the hall.

Closing her eyes and rubbing the bridge of her nose, Yang didn’t feel like they were her responsibility anymore, of course, she had rapidly thought of them as such. Yang Xiao Long was a huntress, after all, a huntress-in-training, but a huntress. And being a huntress meant she had to help people who were in danger. And the two girls in her room, in the beds and unconscious from their wounds and bodily pains with a perhaps homicidal crime boss looking after them. They had to be the girls’ responsibility.

“We’ll say their boss is one person you would not like to get on the wrong side of at all. She’s ruthless. No failure. No failures,” Melanie spoke up, resting on the bedstead near Emerald’s sleeping, and apparently dreaming head. 

Opening her eyes, Yang finally spoke up. “What do you mean, she?” The sun dragon was slightly confused. She remembered the ice cream girl’s boss was obviously Roman Torchwick. But the twins were obvious referring to someone else.

Miltia's eyes were the size of dinner plates. Too quickly, she shut her mouth and began shaking her head, this time Melanie taking the role of comforter. Before Yang could press further, she caught sight of Militia. All of her, and the small woman with the claws looked obviously just as tired as Yang did. 

The sun was still an hour or two from rising, but the sky was turning a hazy shade of very early morning blue, and none of the ten girls had gotten any sleep at all after such an eventful night for all. Ruby was constantly wavering, Weiss and Blake were leaning on each other for support, with the occasional lazy kiss and close cuddle for love and warmth as Yang stressed, and Velvet was laying her head on Coco’s lap even though her eyes were wide open, unable to close. The only ones that seemed to be fully awake were Nora, Pyrrha, and Coco, who were all known to have inhuman amounts of stamina. Yang would usually count herself among them, but her aura was almost drip-dry and she could even tell, due to the strain of her small amounts of healing. Both the girls she was tending to were out of the danger, and she had no doubt that they’d live. She could give them another treatment later, but after a long nap and a meal no doubt. 

“We’re not talking anymore,” Melanie quietly spoke, “we’re already in danger by bringing them to you. I...” Taking a deep huff of air, she tried to regain her voice. “I think we’re in as much danger now as they are.”

“Nora.” Once again, at Yang’s mention, she snapped back into reality from the washing haze of her tired self. “Bring Melanie and Miltia to your room, and get them out of their blood stained dresses. Come find us after. You have extra clothes, right?” Pyrrha instructed sensibly, taking charge as she always did, her natural leadership that had been suppressed over a year of Jaune’s horrid attempt to lead coming out.

Ruby was already practically swooning over her fellow redhead’s headstrong and sensible nature. It was simply put, sexy as anything. She loved it when Pyrrha acted strong, which was all the time due to Pyrrha being naturally strong and such.

“Use mine,” Melanie gave a thankful nod to Pyrrha as Miltia composed herself, shaking a little even in the warm early morning. She was creeped out a little and off balance, shaken. Yang thought to herself about just what the girls had seen in their time working for Junior. What could be so terrible about the boss that Miltia would break down in close to tears?

“Alright, Nora, get them out of here,” the redheaded assumed leader politely gestured and inclined for Nora to do so. Yang had envisioned for Nora to probably grab the twins’ hands and lead them out, or show them to the door. But instead the ginger booper took her advantage and grabbed them by their waists, carrying them out one under each arm. 

Yang had no idea Nora had been ogling the twins all night but the blonde dragon supposed that there was certainly something about both Miltiades and Melanie to admire; their flawless eyeliner tracing their perfectly mint green eyes. Their attractive jawlines and well sculpted faces, and no doubt their smallish, but of course alluring figures that had siren called a tipsy sun dragon into a rather well rounded threesome one alcohol fuelled night. 

The twins are definitely attractive, that much was clear. 

“Now, Coco, would you and Velvet mind keeping an eye on them,” Yang pointed the index finger of her synthetic and flesh laced arm at the both of the injured girls, “until we get back?” 

The buxom and caring blonde knew Coco was nearing the end of her rope, and Velvet was running on fumes. So when she heard Coco ask Velvet if she would be alright staying a bit longer, Yang was pleased to hear her own faunus girlfriend speak up.

“Velvet, get some sleep. I’ll stay with Coco. Switch with me in a few hours, if you’d really want to,” Blake almost squeaked as she slid along the edge of the bed containing Emerald. To which Yang felt an intense rush of affection for the black feline she loved so much. But even then, standing up, droopy-eared, the brown honey bun tried to hold on. 

“No, I’ll go with you guys, into your room. I’ll wait for Coco there, and then we can go back to our own room, together,” Velvet responded sweetly with a yawn and a bunny like squeak. After no more disagreements were made, kisses and hugs were exchanged. Coco and Blake stayed in the next room over, as Yang, Ruby, Velvet, Pyrrha, and Weiss made their way back into their dorm room. After a quick rearrangement of beds, every one managed to be seated comfortably. Yang sat with her red haired and red dressed girlfriends on one bed, as Weiss took a seat with a rather exhausted and faltering Velvet.

Yang knew Ruby was the leader of her team, despite their relationship, and she respected her as a leader when they were just sisters, she respected her as a leader now that they were much more. Despite that, Yang felt the need to solve this issue on her own, feeling her own ownership of it just because she knew and had history with both Melanie and Miltiades as well as the ice cream girl in the bed whom she still did not know the name of. It was her past with Melanie and Miltia that had brought this issue to their doorstep, and by the way Miltia had reacted when she had accidentally let just the boss’s gender slip, it was possible they were all in danger now.

Because of Yang’s old and immature party-goer ways, her and everyone she cared about could now be in danger.

Before she could delve any deeper into self doubt and loathing, cool, yet warm hands on either arm brought her out of her own mind. Eyes unglazed as she spied both Ruby and Pyrrha placing their palms on her biceps. It was so comforting, so soothing, and such a welcome interaction from both her redhead girlfriends. Such a small gesture showed not only how much they loved her, but how well they knew her. For Yang, it was odd to think how well Pyrrha knew her, even now. It felt like Yang had to remind herself that she had known Pyrrha for an entire year before taking next step with her. 

Already Yang Xiao Long could say that she was completely and utterly in love with the muscular, toned, warm and very loving Pyrrha Nikos. She loved her very much.

Feeling Ruby’s floral aura from the other side was also extremely welcome as always. Yang loved her sister more than life itself and would always want her in close proximity, holding on; her touch always making Yang’s heated aura rise and replenish. And of course Yang’s touch in return did things to Ruby all the time.

Weiss, on the other hand, was not aware of the touching scene transpiring in front of her, on the opposite bed. She was stuck in her own mind for an entirely different reason. 

Velvet, whom she secretly adored the look of like a faunus model from a summer movie showing, was currently asleep; she was snoozing adorably with her little bunny squeaks making the snow angel’s heart flutter in her own haze. It would not be an issue, had she not fallen asleep on Weiss’s shoulder, which was currently warm in the most pleasant way, for both of them. When Velvet had finally succumbed to the encroaching unconsciousness, she had rested her head on the shoulder, which had caused the top half of Weiss to blush fiercely, still not used to contact, even from her own partners. This blush had warmed the usually cool shoulder, making it even more comfortable for Velvet. It had all become a small bubble of warmth and queer love, which Weiss was always the biggest fan of at all times. 

“So,” Yang began. “We’ve right now got two possibly wanted, very attractive women, in the room next to us,” the blonde explained, rationalising the past few hours to herself more than to her fellow girlfriends and friend. All she could really think was just how exhausted they all were. “The reason they’re here is because their boss is probably gonna kill them if she finds out they didn’t do what they were supposed to do--”

“Which, I would like to add, we also don’t know what that is thank you!” Weiss added from across the bed in her usual authoritative tones. 

“Now, I’ve seen Emerald fight, and fought that sweet looking girl with the ice cream hair--.”

Ruby let go and sat up fully, popping her arms out and refusing to be tired. “Oh! I love her hair and she’s so small!”

The buxom blonde knew that if she had any aura left, Ruby and Pyrrha might be feeling a bit toasty at the moment. “And if Melanie and Miltia were that worried for their lives, it’s entirely possible that,” Yang took a minute to swallow, trying to clear the lump in her throat that she suddenly had. “That...”

“That we might all be in danger now, as well,” finished an equally tired Weiss. As the three girls on the opposite bed finally focused enough to see her, they noticed something in her lap. Someone. Or, at least, someone’s head. Velvet seemed to have taken up residence in the ice queen’s kingdom. What was more surprising than Weiss not minding such a thing, was the fact that she was stroking the ears absentmindedly, helping the little bunny sleep.

“Yeah, exactly,” the blonde agreed as she rubbed her hands over her face, noticing even in the weary state she was in how her right arm was so much colder than her left. Without aura to heat it, the prosthetic felt ever so artificial, even to her. “And I can’t help but blame myself guys. I’m sorry,” the blonde followed, feeling slightly cold from her arm. There were still upgrades and additions Weiss wanted to make. 

Both Ruby and Pyrrha tried to speak at once, the ‘Yang’ and ‘Sis’ blending to become inaudible almost to Yang’s ears, but she new what was said; a hand on each of their thighs silenced both of the redheads. After Yang had let the silence settle, she felt ready to speak again.

“I know. I know I’m stupid for blaming myself. But I’m kinda the reason Mel and Mil came here. Me and my stupid partying.” She took a second to use both hands to scratch the back of her head. “And I’m glad they’re here too. I don’t like people having nowhere to turn.”

After finishing, Yang was immensely thankful for the warm hug on either side of her, from both her redhead honies. With her lack of aura, she was feeling the slight chill in the very early air, even though it was a summer morning, or at least, approaching the morning. The beautiful blonde wrapped her arms around the redhead girls on either side of her, pulling them close to her body, Ruby happily leaping on her lap while Pyrrha decided to slide to the back of Yang, to hold both sisters in one large and warming embrace from behind.

“So,” finished Yang, “where do we go from here?”

They could hear muted conversation in the next room over from the fashionista and the faunus, but no words could be made out. “We wait for the twins,” Weiss plainly stated. As she was met with blank stares, she decided to focus on the girl snoring quietly in her lap as she spoke, in order to focus easier, her voice still a quiet lull of a whisper so as to not wake the sleeping bunny. In the back of her mind, however, something was questioning just why Velvet felt so natural in her current position, Weiss never wanted her to move, and rather boldly slid her arms around her to hold the bunny close.

Instinctively, in her sleep still, Velvet held onto Weiss with all her unconscious might, and squeaked again.

“Melanie and Miltia have information. Information on organized crime in Vale. That sort of information is very valuable,” the snow princess mentioned, blinking and slightly yawning. Before Yang could interrupt, Weiss continued. “And I know they won’t tell us any of it. But they don’t need to tell us. They need to tell Ozpin.”

“Ozpin?” a drowsy Ruby Rose questioned, so cute she was making Pyrrha counter-swoon; she always without fail found Ruby her cutest when she was all tuckered out, which was fair rare because Ruby always had energy, from seemingly nowhere. She was having trouble keeping track of all the events, currently, as well as all the people in the room, she was completely bewildered as to where the sleeping bunny had materialised from. She had to remind herself three times where Nora was, and was sure she’d do it again before she could finally fall asleep.

“Yes, Ozpin. The oldish youngish man with the white hair and the cane. Someone who can protect Melanie and Miltia from whoever would come after them for spilling such information,” Weiss made sure to emphasise the word protect, to get it through to everyone's sleep deprived brains. 

It was not that the snow angel was being too protective of the twins herself or anything else, it was simply that the whole situation had her completely in her uncomfortable zone and she wished, on the contrary to Yang, that the twins and the other two girls be passed to Ozpin. She did not wish for her girlfriends to placed in any danger. 

The whole reveal of conspiracy against Ozpin, Beacon, and Vale itself, had her fearing the worst. Having her fear that possibly her father may have been involved in some area.

“And, I’m sure, once Emerald and the other girl wake up as well, we can convince them to make a similar deal. We might not just save their life, but a lot of other lives as well,” the heiress finished, thinking herself a little cold but also the most sensible for thinking about her girlfriends, a little too much but she loved them that much, especially with her father being the man he was. As she looked up, she was gladly met with aware and agreeing looks. They were huntresses, after all. Saving people was in the job description. 

All but Yang however, mildly she still wanted to keep everyone together, she knew she could help the, and that Ruby would with Emerald, after all she did have a small crush on the mint haired gem. They got on really well. 

There was a knock at the door, startling everyone for a second, Weiss, however, felt for sure it would be Nora and the twins, fresh from a change of clothing and possible a shower and ready to negotiate to get them out of a life of crime. After waking up Velvet, who seemed to be very flustered about where she had been laying her head, Weiss rose in order to open the door for her girlfriend. However then her own exhaustion and tiredness hit her hard, and she felt a little faint, disorientated.

Weiss was just as exhausted as everyone else, but raised to act professional in all situations. 

Opening the door she was beyond shocked, one would say she was completely blasted back by the amount of revelation and almost unbelievable circumstance that was standing in front of her upon removable of the magnolia covered door. Circumstance in the shape of a taller, bustier, heavier clothed with hints of more oceanic blue in her clothing, even crying white haired beauty with said white hair in a rather messy bun with trickles of hair trying to escape her coiled hairbun. Circumstance was in the shape of, of all people, Winter Schnee.

“Winter?!” Weiss almost shrieked. 

“Weeeeiss!” Weeped an inconsolable Winter Schnee. Instantly, she wrapped her arms around her younger sister, and pulled her into her chest, where she cried massive tears into her silvery hair. 

For a second, all Weiss could do was wrap her arms around her big sister, and stand up a little taller, managing to see over her shoulder. That is, she managed to see Nora, Melanie, and Miltia frozen behind Winter, eyes wide, and not knowing what to do, to which Weiss quickly pointed them with a thumb behind Winter’s back to go to the room where Emerald, the girl she didn’t know, Blake, and Coco were. Tiptoeing, she only managed to hear the door open, Nora, Melanie, and Miltia gasp, and the door close.

“Winter, sister, darling, what are you doing here?” Weiss managed to finally get out, confusion, panic, and a bit of happiness, causing her words to scramble in her brain. To see Emerald and an unknown girl with ice cream hair turn up at their doorstep injured in the arms of two girls who knew Yang from a fight and then one night stand was one thing, but for Winter to suddenly show up in complete tears was almost too much for a tired Weiss, who had completely snapped into a full on loving mode upon embracing her dearest sister. 

“Pa-Papa. He had me... dis-discharged from the military, and wanted me home to get-” She took a second to wipe her nose with a well used handkerchief. “To get married to a suitor!” Winter almost screamed, nearly shattering the windows.

For a second, all was inside Weiss’s suddenly flaring heart was rage, forcing her eyes to turn almost as red as Yang’s did, her hair smelled a little of brimstone too. She disliked her father, of course, he was a controlling homophobe and hellbent on preserving his name and legacy, but Weiss found it hard to truly hate him. He was not abusive, as much as he was neglectful, but even then he made sure neither of his daughters never starved, and had what they needed, even if they constantly lack parental affection.

But the military, for Winter, that was her escape, her way out of being basically palmed off into marriage with a suitor she would barely meet and certainly not love or even find remotely attractive to make a company deal. 

Winter Schnee was only ever attracted to people she could find herself, such as an extremely attractive woman with a very proper voice and ight air about her named Samantha early at Atlas Academy, or a few others, or, even Weiss. 

For her father to make them forcefully discharge her, it must’ve been devastating to her sense of security, self esteem and her professional career; in Sturm’s eyes she would hardly need one. No wonder Winter was acting the way she currently was.

Weiss again held her dearest sister close to her bosom, keeping her close to her heart which was as warm as it had ever been, consoling and loving. The ice princess would do certainly do anything for her sister, she loved her so greatly. “You’re here now Winter, it’s okay,” the snow angel consoled her taller and more voluminous sister; she lightly patted her back, and squeezed tightly, as if she could wring the negative emotions out of her. “Is there anything you want?” Weiss asked with the most soothing voice the girls had heard. 

Is that voice even possible from Weiss? Pyrrha thought to herself as she was holding her precious Ruby. 

Weiss talks like that? Ruby thought to herself as she purred almost in Pyrrha’s embrace

Oh my dust, there are two attractive Schnees? Dust, dust dust dust. Yang thought, almost whispering to herself as her little curved trail of hair atop her head stood on end as she looked to Winter’s direction.

Almost instantly, Weiss felt her frantic sister go limp in her grasp. Not enough to collapse, but one of exhaustion and defeat.

“Sleep. I need to sleep, Weiss,” Winter sighed into her snowflake’s frame. “I cried the whole time almost during the flight over. I left in such a hurry I have no clothes,” she cried all the more, feeling so pathetic, but so at home in Weiss’s arms.

Velvet, getting up, made sure the bed she was currently sitting on was free and open, ready to receive the older Schnee. As Weiss led her dear elder sister to the bed, Velvet passed her, mouthing the words ‘I need to check on Coco,’ to which the white haired heiress nodded, letting her know it was perfectly acceptable to do such a thing.

After settling Winter down on top of both the sheets and the blanket, Weiss felt herself calm down at last, after hours of such a long a tormenting experience. She wanted to both kill and talk to her father, but in that moment could do neither and nothing except rest, she was so finished. A lot had happened in the past couple hours, but Winter had always been a constant in Weiss's life, a familiar, comforting presence when no one else gave her affection, whether it was her parents, herself, or kids at school. Even when she had gotten rejected, Winter had been there for her, ready to hold her until the tears stopped.

“Winter, is there anything else you need?” Weiss asked again in her soothing, almost fluoride like voice. For a second, Winter was still and Weiss, in that time, wondered if she was already asleep. She was half on her side, half on her stomach, and although her shoes had been removed, she was still in her full Atlas Military Specialist uniform. 

There was something mumbled, a single word, but inaudible. As Weiss leaned closer to hear what had been said, she finally made the word out when it had been repeated. 

“You,” the sleepy specialist mumbled smoothly.

Climbing into bed with her sister, the smaller snow angel wrapped her arms around her taller sister, while Winter did the same. All at once, she felt the entire night land on her shoulders like an anvil, or two or three. As Weiss started to fall asleep, she heard the door open, and Ruby whispering something about meeting up with everyone else before hearing receding footsteps. Unable to even reply, she fell asleep in her sister's arms, her heart beating harder than usual, the scent of her sister’s snowdrop perfume in her nose, and the peppermint from her breath. Absent mindedly, she gave Winter a light kiss on the lips after she heard the door shut, peppermint tingling on her own before she finally passed out.

Yang, after watching the scene, knew how they felt. It was how she felt a few months prior with Ruby, how she had really always felt since becoming so close with her baby sister again. She opened the door, followed her girlfriends out, and shut it quietly behind her.

After Yang caught up with Ruby and Pyrrha, who were waiting for her in the hallway, they entered the next room over, not knowing what to expect. What they got, however, was something they couldn’t have expected.

Blake and Coco were silently leaning on the left side of the room. Both had their arms crossed, and were looking quite panicked. Beside them sat Coco, who had her back against the wall while sitting cross legged. On one of the three beds left in the room, lay the ice cream haired girl, still unconscious and breathing softly, her small frame lightly rising under the sheets to then lower as she slept and recovered, most of the healing delivered by the blonde doing it’s intended job and rejuvenating her passively as she snoozed; she appeared to no longer be in any pain, and healing quickly, but that was only on the outside, with her cuts and bruises subsiding, any damage on the inside would have to be inspected later. On the second bed, was Nora, sitting with Miltia and Melanie and both straddling each of her thighs, looking both natural and unnatural to the dazed and suspicious Yang, as she flicked back to look at the ice cream girl on the bed, remembering their fight again and recalling every dirty move and slip trick. Nora, on the other hand, looked as happy as can be, with new friends, new beautiful friends who were holding onto her like she was a protective hound. Not like Zwei; Nora would be a hound that could actually do some real damage without the use of Professor Oobleck’s thermos canon.

On the third bed was a very awake and wide eyed Emerald, frightened and unsure of where she was, as she was close by Glynda Goodwitch of all people. Emerald, the Twins, another Schnee, the mysterious ice cream girl, Yang’s tired mind could in no way take much more, nor could Ruby’s, and if the elder blonde was struggling to keep track of what was happening and how many people were entering the set of dorms, there was no way Rubles could.

After a pause, Ruby began to speak. “Miss Goodwitch? What are you doing here? This is the dorms, and it’s late. And it’s Summer. And you’re Miss Goodwitch, and this is the dorms,” Ruby babbled, her brain completely frazzled as she fell back into Pyrrha’s arms. “Pyrrha, don’t let me have ice cream before bed again mmkay?” 

Ice cream.

Yang looked instantly to the sleeping tiny girl in the bed, still recovering as Emerald began to get slightly warm with Glynda. Thoughts raced through Yang’s head, making her feel stupid for finding the ice cream girl pretty or attractive or even liking her smug ice cream hair. 

What if they were all lying?

However. Earlier.

Coco and Blake watched their girlfriends leave before they each took half of the empty bed pushed up against the wall as their seating and sat a little closer than usual, brought together by the stressful events of the night after such a lovely date. For a few seconds they sat in silence, but the seconds dragged on and Coco felt the urge to break the stale state of no volume aside from the internal light moans and groans emanating from Emerald, whom Blake felt very strangely about, however there was never anything exciting about watching two people sleep, at least, rarely was there ever anything exciting. 

So eventually, Coco spoke.

“So, about this relationship of yours...”

There were a few moments of more silence as Blake’s feline ears stood on end at the shock of the sudden question out of seemingly nowhere. It seemed as if their situation was neither the time nor place for such a conversation but Blake’s instincts felt that Coco was about to ask something she would never had done days ago. It was still the lingering effect of the wondrous date. 

“What about it?” The faunus asked, nervous and slightly blushing as her ears flattened under the bow and the ribbon drooped down. Blake had an idea what Coco was getting at or implying, what she was about to talk about. The faunus and female instincts playing right into Blake’s own. Well, it was more as if she knew exactly what it was about. Velvet wasn’t the only one with faunus ears, and they were hardly trying their best to be quiet after the ice cream shop, and during the flight back.

Blake’s rosy cheeks brightened even more as she found herself scooting nearer and nearer to Coco’s warming aura that reminded and made Blake feel of her dark chocolatey treats that Ruby would always bake her one the cooler days. 

It was always dark chocolate for the sweet and adorable faunus baked and folded into the cookie dough and cupcake mix, then baked into the shape of a tiny tuna; Blake always purred when she rocked herself into one of her girlfriend’s laps nibbling on the fish shaped cookie. Then for Weiss it was white chocolate and sometimes mint chocolate, and for the buxom blonde it was always either larger cookies the size of hockey pucks with little added pieces of banana or just the bowl of leftover cookie dough with Ruby sitting on her lap to help her eat it all. 

“Would you… Would any of you be interested in adding two more?” Coco slowly edged out, looking to Blake to be nervous for the first time in her life. Coco was the most confident person at Beacon Academy, she never ever showed if she ever had a bad day, everyone thought it was impossible for her to have one. To see her choking on such a personal and rather flattering question was making Blake feel strange, in such a good way. 

Blake nudged even closer to Coco, feeling so flushed in her cheeks. She was a bare faced liar if she told herself she did not find Coco attractive or approachable. 

“You,” the faunus began. “You know it’s not just my decision to make, don’t you? It’s more of a committee decision than anything,” the faunus blushed, a little sad, but also sensible again, caring about Coco enough to tell her closely.

As silence grew between them,both feeling they would rather be in the middle of an old firefight against the White Fang or a batch or Grimm, in fact Deathstalkers and Nevermores coming at the two fierce vixens looked rather more appealing than a silence or a bout of awkwardness as both of them felt a growing urge to sleep. 

Thankfully for them, Emerald had chosen that moment to wake up.

Both Coco and Blake had turned to see the minty haired girl sit up in bed, grasping and groaning at her bandaged head before she had turned to return the stare to the two bold and darkened women sitting across the room, both looking a little out of place in more ways than one. 

“Does,” Emerald began with a shaky whisper, “Does anyone know I’m here?”

Coco had nodded to Blake as she had checked behind the door for any eavesdroppers, mainly Nora and the rest of the girls, Velvet too, while the faunus had gone to sit as comfortably as she could have done on the bed where the mint haired and mysterious teen was lying.

“Yes. Pyrrha, Nora, Yang, Ruby, Weiss, Velvet, and two girls called the Malachite twins who brought you here all know besides Coco,” Blake gestured to the tired but still confident woman beside her, running low without her nightly cup of tea. “And myself. We met a while ago before Vytal got cancelled, when you were talking to Ruby? But I’m not sure if you remember me,” the feline continued meekly, with a twitch of her ears as she extended her hand, only to feel saddened as Emerald drew her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.

It was of course understandable given what the poor gem had been through, and not just in the past twenty four hours or so, as everyone would come to learn. 

“You’re making a mistake. I don’t know how much you’ve been told by Melanie and Miltia about who Neo and I really are, but you, and everyone else is in a lot of danger if she knows I’m here.” 

Without either of them knowing, she tried to summon any bit of Aura in order to use her semblance to escape, but either she was bone dry, or as soon as any bit regenerated, it spent itself healing her. Emerald was tapped and when she tried to move, her side fizzled and burned with a fire then made her cry out and lay back down.

“We know enough. You and your friend, Neo?” Coco inquired. When Emerald nodded half heartedly, she continued. “You and Neo, we know the both you’re criminals, hard to miss when one of you nearly put a hole in Yangarang during the Breach, but mostly because of situation,” the still shaded cannonier slated, silently formulating an opinion about the ice cream haired one but feeling compassion for Emerald as she drew her knees ever closer to her chest.

“What I wanted to talk to you about is actually your boss. How much are you willing to spill about her?” Blake asked with a little mew beforehand, trying her best to be so compassionate and caring, even leaving the bed and getting to her knees to help. She knew all too well exactly how Emerald felt from the looks of her, the signs were all present all over the little gem. 

Blake knew exactly what had happened from personal experience. From Adam Taurus.

Emerald let loose a shaky smile, trying her best to put on one however fake that may be, just for the sake of habit more than anything, also because she felt Blake Belladonna deserved a smile, she was being so nice and her warm, yellow cat eyes gave away that she was empathising with Emerald on a level that had transcended the there and then.

“Yes,” announced a newly appeared and well rested Professor Goodwitch as she moved Coco to the side of the door where she was then standing like a plank of wood, “let’s talk about that indeed,” the professor suggested as she gestured for Blake to rise. Glynda herself sat down close to Emerald, warmly bringing the mint haired girl out of her defensive shell. The feline woman, not knowing where to go, stood next to Coco, who was still having shivers over the feeling of being telekinetically moved.

“If you were willing to share such information,” the blonde teacher began, with a calm, gentle tone, “we could protect you. Ozpin and I. Beacon itself. We could protect you from whatever you and your companion are running from,” Glynda offered, taking Emerald’s hand sweetly and softly, as if calming an injured bear, or some other creature that had suffered a terrible trauma.

Blake wondered if Glynda could sense what her faunus and personal instincts were telling her, that Emerald had indeed been not only beaten and left for dead, but also abused.

Emerald was conflicted. Even as a child, she wasn’t one to be protected, to obey an official authority, or to need other people. But there was no way she could go back, no, not ever, never again. Em would rather have died in that moment in time than to have gone back to Cinder out of some stupid sense of faded loyalty to someone who had made her life some form of desired hell for months on end.

“If... If I do. What about Miltia, Melanie, and Neo?” She did have some form of comradery with them at least, being through a lot with Neo especially, and knew they’d be in danger as well, if they weren’t under this blanket of protection she was considering diving under.

With a small laugh, Glynda grabbed one of Emerald’s hands gently and slowly and held it in her own. “If they’d be willing to talk with Ozpin as well, I’m sure we could make an arrangement where you’d all be safe here at Beacon.”

Emerald was not sure why the fact hadn’t pierced her membrane until now, but she finally realized where she was. She was at Beacon. Beacon Academy. That meant that it was possible that somewhere on campus, Cinder Fall was wondering where she was. Hellbent on finishing the job she’d had left unfinished for her at the bank hours hours ago.

With a deep breath, Emerald became prepared to give up a crucial fact. One, that if Cinder ever knew she had spoken, would result in her vocal cords becoming ash. 

“And what if I told you that this danger was in Beacon Academy?” 

Both Coco and Blake, who had been listening silently, widened their eyes. They wondered if that was even possible, for someone who could be so dangerous to be hiding in plain sight the entire time.

Both Glynda and Emerald were feeling something unknown to both of them. Emerald felt oddly safe around the blonde woman, perhaps it was how powerful Emerald knew the huntress was, combined with how she felt Glynda cared more about her being safe rather than catching a criminal. Glynda, on the other hand, did feel like she wanted to protect Emerald. She wanted to protect all of her students, but she didn’t want to hug them as she did as well.

“If that’s true,” the blonde professor settled, rubbing the back of Emerald’s hand with her thumb, “then we’ll find a way to keep you all safe. Whatever it takes, I’ll keep you safe.”

The heartwarming scene was broken as the door swung open, where Nora, Melanie, and Miltia stood. Coco and Blake noted how Melanie and Miltiades were no longer in their dresses, but instead in large basketball shorts and larger shirts for bed, with Nora looking as if she would keep the for herself as sisters or even more girlfriends. All three smelled of soap and shampoo, most likely, they guessed, because of a shower, or a bath, which sounded more appealing Nora’s head after the fact. What Coco and Blake couldn’t figure out is how all three showered so quickly, unless, they had done so together.

“Ozpin, we’re talking like you asked. Yes, she’s awake, but the other one isn’t yet. Yes, very well, in fact. Let me ask.” Moving the scroll away from her mouth, and placing a hand over the receiver, she voiced a quick question to Emerald. “Miss. Sustrai, would you be willing to speak to Headmaster Ozpin about this?”

“Yes, yes ma’am,” the gem responded cautiously and with a lowered tone of voice, still shaken massively and feeling her head ready to split like an overripe melon. After Emerald’s reply, Glynda showed a grateful smile and returned to her call.

“Did you get that? When the other one wakes, then I can bring all four up to you. Yes, the twins as well. Wait, just hold on for a second, Oz.” Once again, moving her mouth away from the phone, she turned to the twins on Nora’s lap. “Would you to be willing to talk to Headmaster Ozpin as well?’

Looking at each other, they still felt unsure. “I will if you will”, whispered Melanie. 

“I will if you will,” replied Miltia.

“We will,” said Nora. As both twins looked to her, they felt a sense of strength and protection radiating off of her. “I’ll go with them. The moment they get uncomfortable or afraid, I’m carrying them out.”

With a nod, Glynda returned to her call. “Yes, all four. Just let me talk with the rest of the girls, then I’ll call when I’m coming up.” Lightly touching the red end call symbol, she allowed herself a bit of breathing room, examining her current company. As she closely inspected the silent duo, she noticed both looked noticeably tired. She was about to ask just why they seemed to sleep deprived, when Velvet Scarlatina walked into the room. 

“Ah, Ms. Scarlatina. So glad you could join us. Take a seat anywhere,” Glynda remarked with a smile. After taking a seat next to Coco on the floor, there was another gap of silence before Nora perked up.

“Blake! Blake!” The hammer wielder excitedly said. 

The feline faunus, feeling like a school teacher, let out a sigh that held a lot of tension that was building up inside her. “Yes, Nora, what is it?” She knew Nora could be overly energetic, unintentionally thoughtless at times, and a bit clumsy, but she always had this love about her that made Blake know that she was worth all the trouble.

“Melanie and Miltia are thinking of staying with us at Beacon if things go well!” Nora cried in jubilation as she bounced with the two after they planted two soft kisses on each of her cheeks.

Blake’s mind ground to a halt at this sentence, and began recalculating if she was, indeed, worth all this trouble. A thousand questions, exclamations, and various curse words rushed to the surface, but managed to trip over each other when the door opened one last time, to see three of her girlfriends standing there. Yang, Pyrrha, and Ruby looked on with a powerful amount of confusion.

Smiling, Glynda loved the feeling of being able to rend so many people speechless. “Good evening girls. Will Ms. Schnee be joining us as well, or can we begin?”

“So, you really think Ozpin will be willing to grant them both amnesty and protection, Ms. Goodwitch?” Asked Pyrrha, wise and concerned as always. It was a few minutes later, and Glynda had just finished explaining the plan for Emerald, Melanie, Miltia, and the other.

“Neo,” Yang called out from nowhere, looking to the girl with the ice cream hair with still suspicious eyes. 

Pyrrha turned, and saw Ruby holding Yang’s hand. She hadn’t taken her eyes off of the mute girl since she had learned her name, and no one was sure just what was going on in her mind. Yang did not hold grudges, but everyone knew something about the fight with Neo had left a mark on her. Whether it was how she couldn’t manage to land a hit, how effortlessly she had been beaten, or how it caused the one person in Yang’s life she had no answers about to appear, and disappear just as suddenly.

“Yes, Pyrrha. And please, call my Glynda. I’m not your teacher now, just a fellow huntress.” Glynda herself was a bit mystified, as Emerald was currently sitting in her lap. She didn’t mind, it, in fact, felt natural for her to be there. Perhaps this was why Emerald was doing it as well.

It took some time to get it all together, but the amnesty was arranged rather rapidly and Emerald, the twins and ‘Neo’ moved into a spare dorm down the hall from the collected rooms of Team Rwby and the last of Team Jnpr, with Coco and Velvet still staying with their teammates across the courtyard with the rest of the soon to be third years. Nora and some of the others visited the twins and Emerald every day for over a week, slowly but surely getting more and more closer to them. The same was said for Emerald and Professor Goodwitch, and slowly all of the girls integrated seamlessly into an even bigger web of love and grace. 

Within weeks they were all happy and together and changing so very rapidly and so very drastically in some cases. Especially Emerald, the twins, and more than anyone, Neo. She was developing the biggest crush on the buxom blonde. And Pyrrha could tell. All based on the conversation the three had had back during the night they properly met.

“So, uh, you wanna start with your name?”

There came nothing but silence from the ice cream haired girl as she looked so meek and almost frightened by the booming blonde with the even bigger chest than before. In fact her multicolored eyes were almost fixated on the yellow, cloth covered orbs in front of her, even in the dim dawn light.

Yang tried again. “Do you have a name?” But again there was nothing. Only the second time the small ice cream lady performed a small sequence of movement with her two hands. The sun dragon was completely flabbergasted by what her rival was doing. 

“Have you never seen sign language before Yang?” Came the familiar and loving, lovable tones of the melodic Pyrrha Nikos as she came close to the two exchanging girls, kissing her fiery blonde girlfriend on the cheek lightly and spotting straight away what had taken the ice cream girl’s eyes. They were rather hard to miss and Pyrrha had had all too beautiful experiences with both of the orbs, as had Ruby plenty of times. “Um, darling, I think she’s saying that you could do with putting a blanket over your… Uh, chest. She’s already distracted,” Pyrrha translated, instantly entering the conversation by exchanging hand signs with the mute. 

The redhead and the ice cream girl did so for several seconds as Yang found a sheet and covered her chest out of courtesy even for her rival who had nearly killed her. Then Yang suddenly thought why the small assassin hadn’t killed her, why had she vanished on the train?

Her mind was taken by Pyrrha dragging her back to the conversation. “She says she's sorry for the train Yang, and then there’s something I cannot quite make out.”

The ice cream girl was signing the flavour of an ice cream only she was mouthing silently and then making with her short fingers the letter ‘O’ it looked like. 

“She’s saying, ‘Neapolitan’, but then she’s mouthing an ‘O’,” Pyrrha said aloud, confused as the girl nodded then shook her head then nodded it again and so on. “What is it friend? I don’t understand. Sorry!”

“Neopolitan?” Yang asked out of curiosity, taking a stab at what the rival may have been saying. She was amazed when the woman began shaking her head vigorously, then making a squishing motion as to indicate shortening the word, which was her full name. “Neo? Neo! You’re name is Neo!”

Neo grabbed Yang’s outstretched hand and shook her head with a smile on her face. Her name was Neo and she was very happy they knew so. 

Pyrrha swooned a little, awing and holding her hand out politely for a handshake. “It is very nice to meet you Neo.”

“Yeah, nice to meet you Neo,” Yang hummed, feeling a little better at the expression of sheer and genuine joy on Neo’s face.


	12. Nightswimming

From Jaune Arc to Headmaster Ozpin of Beacon Academy.

Headmaster Ozpin.

If Cinder does not come back home after today, I will do everything in my power to make you feel the amount of pain losing her would cause me. 

Great Respects,

Jaune Arc.

When the alarm clocks finally began to sound off with their kestral sounding beeping, waking up a few of the seventeen girls, it was still dark outside. 

Not just dark, but it was indeed still night, dawn breaking however slowly. Stars were still shining dimly as the blackened sky lightly glowed into a muted dark blue and the moon was still suspended brightly and shattered as it had been for thousands of years. While there was snow on the ground, there were masses of clouds in the breaking sky. 

The first four up were Glynda, who was ready to wake up as early as ever for the trip, Winter, who still had her military training and was used to early reveille calls, Ciel, who was naturally a light sleeper, and Penny, who had set an alarm internally in her head to be more prepared than ever. She thought of disabling the drowsy proxy in order to improve efficiency, but thought against it for the fairness of her girlfriends, she wanted to not cheat just to get ahead, and remembered that Ruby always loved more cuddles in the morning as the ginger synth stirred. 

The clocks all currently read three-twenty in the morning, with plenty of time for their five o’clock flight.

Slowly, but not sluggishly, all the girls woke each other up, and began to file in pairs and thirds in order to the many bathrooms and showers. The showers were rather brief, quick and cleanly precise, all the girls waking up a little more than when they had entered, due to the feeling of closeness when one helped another wash their hair. However unintentional it always was, showers could never help but become intimate.

Although their bags had been packed in a rush the previous night, Coco, Ciel, and Blake had done a once over just to make sure everyone had what they needed; enough underwear, enough extra clothing, enough toiletries, enough of everything for the next two weeks. Everything for the scorching coastal temperatures of the Mistral beach, and for the blistering winds and sub-zero temperatures of the Atlas Mountains.

They stood outside the townhouse at quarter to four, all packed and eating some menagerie of microwaved breakfast pastries, perfect for keeping them warmer than they could be in the leaching cold. Each girl was dressed in almost throw away clothing, outfits that didn’t matter as they were all going to nap on the flight across Remnant.

At exactly three-forty five, a large, army-like vehicle rolled up. It looked like a combination between a armored transport truck, and a limo. Perfect, Winter and Weiss agreed when they ordered it a few days previous, for traversing snowy streets. As they all piled in, they didn’t care who they sat next to, or what time it was. It was dark, it was cold, but they were warm, and they were tired, Ruby specifically catching a few more sneaky minutes sleep with her head draped on Yang’s upper bust for a pillow.

It was a late, or rather early, four-ten in the morning when they finally pulled up to the departures section of the central airport of Vale. The airship that would be taking them was better suited for long range flights, rather than the short range, slow moving, mass transit ones like the large one that ferried everyone to and from Beacon Academy every morning and evening.

Still sleepy, with Ruby, Nora and Emerald at closer to four-thirty, they had checked in, gone through the lightish security at each checkpoint and scanner to ensure there was nothing lethal, not even the weapons of huntresses taken through, and were prepared to board. Yang had gone off with Velvet, Blake, Neon, Neo, and Nora in search of snacks a few minutes prior to sitting and waiting, and were returning with plastic packages of salty and sweet snacks, combined with a few bottles of water, and a few bottles of caffeine mixed with unnatural flavoring and sugar. Just as they got back, boarding was called. Weiss, Winter, Coco, Glynda and Ciel all made the same, synchronised comment of how it was the fasted any of them had boarded an airship in their lives.

In rows of three, the girls grabbed their seats.

Pyrrha was seated with Yang and Ciel, in the middle of the sun dragon and the time keeper. Ruby sat in her window seat with Miltia in the middle, and Neon on the end, the feline almost shaking from the excitement to finally leave so much her tail was curling more than ever. Nora was in the middle of Neo and Velvet, the little ice cream lady still dozing and resting her head on the ginger as she tied the two seat belt buckles. Blake leaned on Winter’s left shoulder, while Weiss leaned on the other, the blizzard woman feeling actually warm and loved, and tired herself, no doubt she would sleep the whole way there. It was better than her last flight which was from Atlas to Vale and she spent almost the entire time crying. Glynda enjoyed holding Coco’s hand, while she held Penny’s. Finally, Melanie sat in a window seat, while Emerald gave her small kisses in order to calm and fear of flying.

As the plane took off on that early winter morning, and the temperature stayed steady just above the freezing line with the flight personnel outside breathing out visible gas, Ruby was surprised she did not feel fear. She didn’t feel fear, anxiety, or even a sliver of jitters from her first time in a long range airship, and it was her first time flying more than the distance to and from Vale and Beacon, or Patch to the Vale coast. What she did feel was an air of mysticism. She looked down on the city of Vale, and felt a little sad at the fact she could not pick out her house from the multitude. 

Even more, she felt an odd sensation. She recalled a word that Penny had told her a week or two back, when they were relaxing and enjoying the cool air of the bottom floor as they cuddled under a blanket and played video games. The word Penny had told her was ‘sonder’. It was the emotion one would feel when they realized that everyone around them, everyone in one space, such as the airship with young Rubles, every headlight on the streets below her, every apartment with a light on or off that she was flying over, had someone connected to them, who had a life as complex, stressful, and enjoyable as her own. 

It was Ruby’s own realisation that while every single one of her girlfriends were totally consumed by the same love she was engulfed by at all times, they were also little melding pots of emotions, doubts, fears, but also elations about the word and people around them. So many chemicals and sugars and feelings and fleeting thoughts that could only ever be sustained for an instant of cognitive thought. 

“Ruby,” whispered Miltia, “Do you... want me to start on your arm?” Ruby turned and saw the girl who enjoyed wearing red and black nearly as much as she did. Miltia and her sister had been in the relationship for months, but still acted shy and standoffish from time to time. Ciel described it to her that Miltia and Melanie interacted as if doing anything too suddenly, whether it was move, speak, or ask a simple question, would suddenly cause the relationship, if not the entire world around them, to shatter. 

When Ruby had inquired with Ciel how to make them more comfortable, the efficient girl simply responded in a somber tone “We just have to let them take their time and see that there’s nothing to fear,” she checked her watch, making sure that it wasn’t time to pick up Yang and Pyrrha from their sparring session, “no matter how long that’s going to take.”

“Of course, Miltia,” Ruby quietly settled before giving her redly dressed girlfriend a light peck on the lips, smiling at the slow and deep blush that spread across her face. Silently, Miltia took out her small henna kit from the carry-on bag she had brought with her, which was nestled neatly in her lap, and began lightly applying the dark paste to Ruby’s arm, forming intricate floral designs while Ruby continued to stare out the window, still not quite able to accept the reality of life, the universe, and everything. At least, something in the back of the rose’s mind muttered, it was something to focus on. Neon, on the end, had taken to listening to music, the heavenly mixture of pop punk, hip hop and glam rock on a rather lower setting, able to lull her back off to sleep.

Ciel was doing something she did not do too often. Ciel Soleil was relaxing. The girls all assumed, even Ciel herself, that she would be a nervous wreck, unable to do anything for sake of the time schedule and then accounted variables that could all theoretically go wrong. Ciel did not obsess over all actions, just those that she could effect and control and monitor. When she was no longer in control, that was when she could finally let her hair down. It also helped that one of the more easy going girls was in the middle seat while Ciel herself was leaning against the other window. 

“Pyrrha, show me the one with the drummer again!” Yang urged. She had consumed a few too many energy drinks while waiting to board, Ciel had noticed, and would most likely either make it completely through the flight, or crash within minutes. Taking a look at her watch, she decided that it was time to fully go on vacation. She wasn’t going to be Miss. Soleil to the students, she wasn’t going to be Penny’s caretaker, she wasn’t going to be anything except Ciel; lover, girlfriend, and holiday extraordinaire. 

She removed her watch, and tucked it safely in her carry on, feeling her wrist grow light for the first time in weeks. Two minutes later, she pulled out her scroll to check the time. She was like a junkie the way she would check thrice in the span of thirty seconds and then hate herself for it. A time junkie.

A few rows ahead, Neo and Nora shared a few packages of sour gummy candies, mixtures of sugar coated bonbons and then sour cherries with gummy bears and liquorice swirls. While their rivalry over breakfast may have had them occasionally come to blows, all other food, sweet, sour, and savory, was loved by both, and not too often, Neo was a bit envious of Nora’s metabolism. She was sure that she had seen the little booper down almost an entire cake, and come out almost the same weight, almost. Nora was a magician almost when it came to food. But, on the other hand, Neo did enjoy the small contest of tastebuds. To her, it was a sign of a better life she was living. One of comfort, one of love, one of not having to steal and kill in order to eat for the week. 

The sour in her mouth suddenly became a bit too overpowering, she hated remembering the times before she had been rescued by the girls she loved. Despite everything, Neo had managed to hold onto her conscience, which ate at her mind and emotions in the night, the same as it did with Emerald, making them both think back. It reminded her of all the people she had hurt, and all those who had hurt her; Cinder Fall, Mercury Black at times, even Yang to a small, cosmetic degree and then also Roman, and how she still hated that very fact. Just how much blood she had cleaned off the rapier hidden in the umbrella that always made the girls think she had taken to the tale of Mary Poppins a little too much as child, all except Neon, who hadn’t read the book and just thought that when Neo wore her old combat suit, the ice cream girl looked like she could thrill anyone in the world, as soon as kill them maliciously. 

Nora’s lips on Neo’s shot her out of her spiral of guilt and remorse, Nora pulling back, the treat that Neo had left hanging out of her mouth, now on display, then disappearing into the red head’s mouth.

Giggling, Nora teased at a tenth of her normal volume. “If you wanted a kiss, you didn’t have to tempt me. All you had to do was ask sweetie,” the booper boomed with such a smile on her face. Neo’s eyes glistened at the thought.

With that simple sentence, all the relief drained from Neo’s body, remembering how Ozpin had told her that the information she had given in exchange for her protection and amnesty would save hundreds, if not thousands of lives. How he knew that she did what she had to in order to survive. Both her and Emerald. 

Instead now, Neo was purely elated by the simple fact of actually being wanted to be kissed, by such a beautiful woman.

Looking across at Velvet, the bunny faunus looked up from the book she was reading, and gave a small, honest, warm smile, the ears bobbing in kind.

In a panic, Neo remembered. She, Velvet, Glynda, Blake, Winter, Ciel, and Penny had all decided to read a book on the trip while traveling. 

Thusly, Neo got up, stretched as much as she could to reach the overhead compartment, and retrieved the book they had chosen, called ‘Thunk’, which was about a world where monsters, that were not Grimm existed, and lived with humans. There was a murder, and one police officer had to catch them, all the while having to deal with the politics and the tensions between two different races, one made of rock, and another that mined and lived in it. In a lot of ways, it reminded Neo of the tensions between the Faunus and the Humans. She hoped the book would have a happy ending, but there was only one way to find out.

As Neo dove in, Nora finished the bag of sweets, cramming them into her mouth and looking like such a lovable girl with the slight energetic overdrive about her. However soon, she sugar crashed, and slept the rest of the flight.

Winter was in heaven, a completely perfect paradise, not too warm and not too cold, cuddly and purring heaven. Ordinarily, she would have been annoyed; two people had taken to leaning on her shoulder in order to sleep during a long trip, but instead of two random strangers of different aspects, morals, and attractiveness, it was two of her girlfriends. Her own sister, adorable and innocent and loving to an extent that Winter thought near impossible given how awful their father had turned out to be, but not Weiss, she was beautiful and kind and loving and so very gentle, even more so with Winter herself. On the other shoulder, lay one of her faunus lovers, and one after her own heart, and while Winter was a little cautious and also curious when first becoming emotionally entangled with the stunning and alluring feline, after all the time she had spent with her, in and out of the bedroom, Winter knew that Blake was possibly the most loyal of girlfriends, and one of the most physically loving.

Winter loved Blake, and Weiss, and all her girlfriends, but sitting in between the two teammates stirred those cuddly and melting feelings even more. It was going to be a long flight, and as the onyx haired feline and the snow white haired heiress rested their little heads in Winter’s rather large bosom, she knew it was going to be an enjoyable one. 

Sighing, she enjoyed the cool skin of Weiss, and the radiant warmth of Blake. It was not as intense as Yang, who was always rife with a more intense inner flame, one that roared as she did and rarely ever simmered even as the little sun dragon would sleep, Blake was a different and more mellow warmth. Blake’s body heat was simply stronger than normal, and made all the more enjoyable by the fact that Winter had realized the stronger her attraction and connection, the warmer she was in her sleep. Leaning back, Winter wondered just how to put in her headphones to her audiobook without waking either girl. In spite of her happiness, she screamed internally at that trial, all she wanted was some in flight entertained because she could never sleep. 

Close by, in another row the professor breathed. 

They had made it to the airport on time, got through security early, and boarded without issue. Everything was going well. That is, everything was going well, until Coco had revealed her secret and completely unexpected fear of flying. 

Glynda took a break from breathing in order to gasp, as the slightest wisp of turbulence sent Coco into a mild panic, making her grip her elder girlfriend’s hand a bit harder than she needed to, making the professor’s aura creak and shunt on around her. Penny seemed to not notice, but this was because she had turned on the extra strength servos and disabled pain from the elbow down. Her eyes were closed, and while it may have looked like she was simply asleep, the ginger girl was actually watching a downloaded movie behind her eyelids, and of course it was the latest episode of ‘Dust Wars’, the seventh in the series too.

“Coco, love, listen to me,” Glynda calmed her girlfriend, reaching out and trying to keep her from losing herself. “It’s okay, we’re not going to crash.”

“I’m not worried about crashing!” Coco almost choked back harshly, gripping her girlfriends’ arms even harder as her seat made the slightest buckle. “I’m worried about this thing exploding! If that happens, then I don’t think my aura will hold! Or, if a Nevermore attacks, I can’t do anything about it! I have to wait and watch as it tears the ship apart before the sudden loss of oxygen kills us all!” Coco freaked, flipping out almost completely.

Cooing, Glynda pulled Coco to her chest not quite motherly, removing her beret and kissing the crown of her head. “Coco, my love, it’s all okay. These ships won’t explode for the sake of simple turbulence and Nevermores don’t ever fly this high, and even then, we have electric defenses stationed all around the outside of the airship when we pass back down through the cloud layer. We’re more than safe my love. They won’t attack us, and even if they did, they wouldn’t get within two hundred feet without becoming ash,” Glynda explained, pointing out all the defences that were visible through the compartment and then out the porthole windows, one of which had Ruby looking ecstatic out of as they soared above the clouds and in the early morning sky with dawn wanting so desperately to break. 

It was a few seconds before a muffled voice came from the immaculate chest of Glynda Goodwitch.

“Really?”

Smiling, Glynda replied. “Yes, really Coco. Nothing bad is going to happen.”

Another minor bump of turbulence hit the plane. Coco, in a panic, released Penny’s hand and wrapped both around the body of her comforting professor, squeezing as hard as she could, causing Glynda to gasp as her ribs creaked from the strength of a woman who could use a jewelry box to drive a Beowulf through a slab of concrete or metal who also wielded a handheld minigun that could cut through the largest of Nevermores and Deathstalkers without the smallest hint of trouble. Penny giggled at one of the more comedic scenes in her movie.

“Coco. Nothing bad is going to happen to you, I promise,” Glynda kept lulling her tense and afraid heavy gunner girlfriend, “but if you keep griping that hard, something bad is definitely going to happen to me” she reminded her, causing Coco to look and see the red marks she was making with her fingernails digging into Glynda’s soft and exposes skin. As the professor patted the head of the fearful team leader, she only hoped that Emerald was doing better than Coco. It wasn’t a common thing for Glynda to sit away from the little gem, especially not on a long journey such as the flight. 

Emerald, was in fact, doing much better than her sunglasses wearing lover elsewhere on the plane. That is, she was physically doing better than Glynda or Coco. Mentally and emotionally, she was doing much worse. 

Melanie was currently curled up on her lap, the mint haired gem being stretched across all three seats in the row, after the arms had been moved into an upright position. She was doing all she could for the white and blue girl in her lap, but it wasn’t much. She had come to rely on Glynda for most of her heavy emotional support and lulling when she wanted to sleep without the night terrors. A fear of flying? This was outside her pay grade and skill range.

“Emerald. Emerald.” 

“Melanie, I’m here. What’s wrong?” Emerald whispered to her twin lover. She was scared; they both were. Melanie was scared of how high they were, how weak her aura was, and if she’d ever live to see the ground again. Emerald was afraid of accidentally making Melanie’s situation worse, and causing her to be unable to come back from Mistral without being sedated and locked inside a coffin for the flight to Atlas.

When there was no response, Emerald knew Melanie just wanted to know she was still there. It was then, in the moment of fear and worry, an idea blossomed in the gem’s mind. “Melanie, did I ever tell you what my semblance was?”

For a second, the mass of black hair was silent, and Emerald was unsure if she had been heard, before a shaky voice replied “...I-illusions, r-r-right?”

Smiling to herself, Emerald confirmed. “That’s right, illusions. It’s hard to do for multiple people, but if it’s just one person, I can make them see whatever I want. So, Melanie, is there anything you’d like to see right now?”

Melanie did not reply for a minute, but already, Emerald was relieved the shaking had stopped. “I-it’s childish,” Melanie let slip in a meek and innocent whimper. 

Emerald let loose a small huff. “It doesn’t matter. You and I are going to be the only ones who’ll see it.”

Melanie finally turned, and Emerald saw eyes that would match her hair. It wasn’t often that she felt the need to care and protect, but seeing just how much both of them were in a slight mess, she just wanted to express some love and hopefully help her girlfriend. She loved Melanie, and she would do anything to stop her from feeling as terrible as she currently did.

“A butterfly.”

In her mind, Emerald took a moment to imagine the best butterfly she could; with wings that looked like nebulas, constantly swirling and changing hue. Every time they flapped, ribbons the color of the rainbow would spread out from them, hanging in the air before dissolving into simple wisps and then nothingness. From it, a song would play; a song she had been shown by Blake. It was easy going, chilled and laid back, and asked their baby not to cry. It was not a lullaby, but every time Emerald had listened to it, she couldn’t help but think of parents she wished she had, and the huge family she knew she did. She listened to it enough times to memorize it, and soon, Melanie had a smile on her face as she lay on top of Emerald, watching the ethereal piece of love and light flap its way across the flight deck to her lovely face.

For any of the girls who were awake or cared, the sun rose above the clouds, and illuminated them all. Shades of vibrant red and sunkissed orange breaking out slightly below and then above the cloud layer they were all soaring above. Ruby was so taken with it, as was her sister and Ciel, allowing herself to be, with Penny after her movie had concluded and a few of the others. 

“It’s so beautiful,” Ruby sighed as she looked out the window with eyes as wide as glasses lenses with which to view it with. 

“So are you Rubes,” Yang added with her own sigh, making her sister’s stomach flip slightly and her cheeks turn to a mild pink. Morning had dawned on the first day of their vacation.

“What. Do you mean. Our room. Isn’t ready?” Glynda thundered at the clerk as her fist fell flatly and almost explosively on the check-in desk of the ‘Extraña Posada’ hotel, the one the girls were meant to be staying at, at the request and recommendation of Pyrrha. Her reviews and words on the establishment had been nothing but pleasant and yet Glynda was mortified upon arrival.

Currently, the front desk attendant was surprised himself that he had not caused a commotion or attracted the attention of the head clerk or the manager; he was about as mortified as Glynda herself. In front of him was around fifteen huntresses of varying levels of age, strength, exhaustion, and annoyance as far as he could tell. The one woman who appeared to be holding the highest of all these levels was the one currently looking at him like his mother had used to. Glynda Goodwitch was not the correct woman to anger or hold up. Not even Winter Schnee was as bad as her elder girlfriend when things did not move smoothly, and currently Ciel was acting as if she was crumbling under the anxiety of the room not being ready, having to be calmed by Blake, Ruby and the Twins. 

“I… I’m so, so sorry Mrs. Good-”

“Miss,” Glynda stopped him flatly. He must have mistaken her for leading a school field trip, of course he had. It suddenly struck her that maybe she looked a little odd as she saw herself. She was the eldest of a sixteen woman relationship, and the youngest was just almost seventeen. Of course he would think they were all one large field trip, until he looked at the specific room Weiss and Winter had commissioned. 

Only one bed, made up of smaller ones since there was no way the girls could take the empress sized mattress with them.

Wondering just what else the clerk could do in order to make the woman less upset with him, he attempted to recover.

“Miss! Miss Goodwitch. We didn’t expect you so early! The extra, extra, extra large bed is still being put together. But, it should be ready soon,” the clerk responded, trying so very hard to recover. He’d later be gossiping about such a demanding party in the employee locker room no doubt and Winter could tell he was finding Glynda insufferable from her distance at the rear of the group, as Nora and Yang were directly behind Glynda.

“How soon?” She asked, demandingly and impatient. And she had cause to be so, they were hardly early, only an hour at most and the bed should have been made with plenty more time to be spared, according to the exact instructions of the Schnee’s and the extra lien they had included in the price. 

As both Glynda and the front desk clerk turned, he spotted another woman walking toward him. A woman with white hair carrying what looked like a younger version of herself in one arm, and a raven haired faunus in the other. The attendant now wondered if he had died in his sleep, and was currently in hell, after all, seeing the snowpiercer eyes of the begrudged Winter Schnee, with a passionate sapphire blaze inside of them, would make anyone think that she was about to send them there. 

“Ms. Schnee! I’m so, terribly sorry! It’ll be as quick as possible! Just another,” he knew he might as well drop the bad news like ripping off a bandage and thusly swallowed before unleashing the worst on her. “Another hour or two,” he bottled, almost shrieking as he did with his voice cracking. 

Destained with displeasure, Glynda leaned over the counter as much as she could, her own lime green eyes flaring with a verdant hotness as she glared at him, Nora and Yang moving behind her to make way for Winter and her sister. The attendant attempted to retreat into his shoulders like a turtle disappearing into its shell, but the wildfire and snowpiercer eyes still found his meek and innocent orbs of dulled magenta.

“Then what,” Winter, from the back, began with the malice of a loaded revolver, “do you suggest we do?” The assistant teacher pestered with her eyes almost glowing as white as hers and her sister’s hair in the sun on a snowy day. She was livid.

Knowing that his next few words might have been his only chance at redemption, the front desk clerk was prepared to do almost anything he could in his position to get the woman to aim her glare away from him.

“There’s the beach! With unlimited free drinks! Just for you while you wait!” He blundered quickly, trying so hard to buy the attendants in their suite all the time he could. He never considered what was to be done with their bags. As he felt more eyes latch onto him, he quickly readjusted. “And for all your girlfriends as well, all,” he did a quick headcount, making sure to take into account the ones being carried by others. “All sixteen of them!”

Glynda was taken aback, suddenly worried for her relationship. “I never said I was in a relationship with these women!” While she was still a little peeved over the fact he had titled her wrongly and then assumed she was simply their chaperone, jumping straight to the romantic conclusion simply off of the bed was a little over the top.

For a second, the attendant spared himself an unconscious laugh as he input orders into a computer while cheap, temporary bracelets were being printed out. “Miss Goodwitch, I’m a Mistral native. I know when someone is in a relationship. You’re defending them the same way my sister defends her partners. It’s nothing to worry about, in fact here, it’s practically the norm,” he picked up with a growing smile. “We Mistrialians do things a little differently to the people of Vale, and even more different to the Atlesians. Mistral is not your stereotypical shoes and tie region.” 

Picking up the multitude of red bracelets, he began to tear them into strips. “If you do wish to go to the beach, wearing these will signify to the waiters that all your drinks, meals, and snacks are to be free of charge until the end of the weekend, as repayment for the long wait on the bed. My apologies Miss Goodwitch and Ms. Schnee.”

Knowing the risk could potentially bode well for him, he began to input more commands into his computer. “In fact, because of this grave miscalculation, I’d be happy to have all your meals and drinks paid in full for the duration of your stay. Anything for the daughters of Sturm Schnee.”

Winter automatically felt her grip tighten, her nerves almost snap violently and her body temperature increase. Even Weiss was beginning to seethe at the mere mention of their father’s infernal and apt first name.

For a second, the clerk thought he saw the beautiful, snow haired women flinch at that last sentence, and wondered if he had made another terrible mistake, but became relieved once he saw that the blonde woman’s fiercely green glare had softened, and was no longer focus on him, but on the bracelet she had in her hand.

“If you show us a place where we can change, is it possible you can take the rest up to the room, then come get us when it’s ready?”

Today, thought Glynda Goodwitch, is a good day.

She swung lazily in a hammock, Weiss Schnee curled up on her torso, using her ample bosom as a luxurious pillow as her lower body temperature acted as Glynda’s own personal cooling system. In her left hand, she toyed with the loose ponytail Weiss attempted after putting on one of her bathing suit’s, going with a modest bikini. In her right, she held a half full cocktail glass of Vacuoian Sunrise, which was similar to a Strawberry Sunrise, however a Vacuoian Sunrise substituted strawberry for peach and nectarine, adding a more yellow and orange tone to the drink, like the sands of Vacuo, which was either her second or third since coming to the beach. 

Her girlfriends were all in various states and positions in the sand. Some, like Winter and Emerald, had taken to lying in the sun and attempting to gain a tan, even though their aura would prevent any damage close to a sunburn. Some were reading in the shade, such as Blake and Neo sitting under an parasol, discussing the content of the books they were browsing, which had the same cover. Between them, Coco slept, exhausted from the panic she had endured on the flight. Nora, Ruby, Velvet, Neon, Yang, and Ciel were currently in the sparkling ocean, while Miltia and Melanie had attempted a sand castle, to less than stellar results, but it was also their first attempt, and were sure to improve over the course of the week. All that was missing was the loved auburn goddess with the cloth shawl as her skirt and her smaller ginger companion

“Glynda!” The woman who had planned the whole trip turned to see two redheads walking toward her, one dressed in an elegant red combination of a bathing suit and a dress, red fabric billowing in the light breeze, the other in a simple one piece, black and green swimsuit, perfectly contoured to her slim body, and matching her personality almost perfectly.

“Hello you two, any good news?” The alluring blonde professor asked, petting Weiss’s head to help her stay asleep. After the cute, redheaded couple arrived, they each took a sip of their own drinks before answering.

“The room’s all ready,” Pyrrha stated, happily, with her quaint smile and emerald eyes catching a certain angle of the coastal sun that made them glisten like actual jewels. She looked flawless, even more so than normal with her skin and complexion coming out beautifully with her warm pinkish lips looking irresistible as Weiss opened her oceanic eyes. She always loved kissing Pyrrha, feeling their auras merge, and all the girls would admit that kissing Pyrrha always felt very different, much more closer, emotional and almost spiritual, or celestial. 

“As is the food and drink for the rest of our stay. Sensational!” finished Penny. For a few seconds, Glynda didn’t respond, but instead laid back in the hammock, feeling the breeze slowly push her.

“That’s fantastic! Looks like Winter can extract anything out of men she doesn’t like huh?” Glynda snarked, during which she felt Weiss let out a small moan as her eyes closed fully back and she took off again. “Tell the other girls. I don’t want to wake up Weiss yet.” After a quick nod, both went off to spread the good word, and while Glynda wasn’t lying, she wasn’t telling the entire truth either.

Yes, she didn’t want to wake up Weiss, but she didn’t want to leave the hammock for another reason. It wasn’t often one got exactly what they wanted, but when one did, it was not easy to pry them away. And right there, right then, was exactly what Glynda wanted. A beautiful girl in her grasp, in a hammock, feeling slightly buzzed from the drink, as the heat was made better by the smallest of cold breezes. Suddenly, a slightly colder breeze hit her. Not a cool breeze of Summer, but a colder breath of Autumn.

This made Glynda sit up, accidentally waking up Weiss in the process. Together, they held hands, and walked to the room a few minutes behind their girlfriends. 

Sleep was what she needed, Glynda told herself. And they had an entire week to spend in Mistral, then another for Atlas, she would have enough time for all the love in due course. She’d be back in that hammock before she knew it. But, right then, she needed sleep.

A few hours ago, a few thousand miles away, in the snowy city of Vale

An alarm clock beeped, waking Jaune Arc from his slumber, if it could be called that. He had been having nightmares all night, mixed in with barely any valid sleep, but they were the right amount of stress to make him anxious in his dreams, but intense enough to wake him up, meaning he had done nothing but get more frazzled for the past eight or nine hours. 

Getting up, he felt both Cinder and Mercury unconsciously grasp for him in bed, but let them latch on to each other instead of him, and it stung him like a bad omen. It was going to be a day, such a day, and he did not want to endure it at all. Stumbling to the bathroom, he made sure to shut the door before turning on the light, something Roman often forgot when he needed to come in from the living room to use the toilet in the middle of the night.

Looking in the mirror, Jaune suspected that if he saw himself in the woods at night, he would think it was a new type of Grimm, and would try to kill it. His eyes were bloodshot and while the skin around his eyes was dark, the rest was deathly pale. His entire complexion looked as if it had gone for a walk, and he was left looking baggy and lacking in colour, and life. 

Then he thought about it. About life, and how complex a fact it was. His mind wandered, until he eventually drifted back after a few seconds, close to a minute just standing in front of the mirror.

Thanking Cinder silently in his head for the Aura training she had given him, while Mercury had trained him in close combat and Roman had shown him some blade techniques, he used his aura consciously, revitalizing him, and removing toxins from his body. Opening his eyes after a few minutes, he saw his face already looked a little better, but a pain in his lower body told him he was still fully himself.

Sitting down on the toilet, not wanting to make too much noise, Jaune felt his terror and anxiety for the day’s events creep up on him, now that he was awake enough to feel it. 

It was in this moment Jaune remembered a saying his father had. “When something bad is happening to someone you care about and they need you, do not freak out. You have the rest of your life to freak out. They need you now.” It was sound enough advice, but Jaune could not help but think about the thousand and one ways the progression of the day could sour and go down the drain, leaving him completely ruined both mentally and physically. 

But they had to try, at least. 

While his father had said confidence was all one needed to find love, he did give some other good advice every so often, for the more general areas of life, not just love, which from a young age Jaune wanted. Said advice included the famed ‘never cook bacon nude’ and ‘always do what you were going to do tomorrow today, because you never know how long you have.’

That last one always got Jaune, and he always imagined his father’s old and gritty tones gravelling it out as he held the blonde as a child. Jaune missed his father, and his mother, and his grandfather, and even his seven sisters. But, and more importantly, he would always miss Cinder Fall more, and as he thought about that very possibility, Jaune Arc could not believe he was actually thinking about it.

It had been a long year. And an even longer two. There’s was not much more change that he could handle, but he had to, because there was more to come. 

Splashing some water on his face, he saw that the bathroom clock now read five-forty five in the morning. As much as he just wanted to return to bed and let the morning mix into the afternoon and evening, he had to wake up the people he loved. First was Mercury, who would be quick in the shower. After a quick kiss good morning, Jaune listened to the metal feet click on the hardwood floor as he went into the living room to wake up Roman, only to see the young crime boss already awake, smoking a cigarette, not his first that morning, and blowing the smoke out the open window. Jaune knew Roman had quit smoking while under Ironwood’s oversight, and would only do so when he was stressed. Roman loved Cinder nearly as much as Jaune did, and as much as he loved Jaune as well. It was no wonder he allowed himself a vice.

It was safe to say that Roman was just about as stressed and anxious as Jaune himself. Only Roman would not keep it contained, he was smoking like a chimney and when he wasn’t, his thumbs and fingers were twiddling with themselves in his crossed hands.

Knowing he wouldn’t want to be caught doing such an act, Jaune retreated into the bedroom, and took his time, stroking Cinder’s hair in her sleep. That is, until she held her hand close, kissing his palm and the blonde heard her almost purr. “Please don’t stop,” she lulled in a low voice, content mixed in with the natural fear. 

Chuckling to himself, Jaune brushed the hair out of Cinder’s eyes, and it broke his heart to see how red her eyes were too. He had suspected she had gotten even worse sleep than him, but there was no pleasure in being correct. Hell, he had even heard her at one stage in the night, and held her close, but it looked to have almost no good for the poor woman, she was more of a nervous wreck than either he or Roman. Of course she was, it was up to her and not them. The whole day was hers, and hers alone.

“Big day today,” Jaune commented on with a sad smile. Laying down so that their eyes matched, he planted a deep kiss on her lips, feeling all the negative emotions she had swirling inside her. 

“Yeah,” she whispered back. Neither one had energy. Neither one wanted today to come. But both knew it had to happen. For Jaune, it was Cinder’s final act and proof of reformation, and if all went well, she’d be free of that damn belt, possibly. For Cinder, it was the final blade that had to be pulled out of the final back, so she could move on with her life. Her life with Jaune, Roman, and Mercury. Her new life. Away from Salem, or so she hoped.

As they both got up, Mercury emerged out of the shower, and silently got dressed. Not a single word spoken from his mouth, for there was no need. Many mornings in the household were loud. Roman coming up with some crazy flash sale, Mercury obsessing over what to wear, Jaune yelling about breakfast being ready, and Cinder enjoying the life and noise around her.

But that morning? That morning was silent. The only sounds were running showers, hissing pans, knives and forks on plates, then the shutting of the door as all four went out onto the street, where a snow covered car lay. Jaune, borrowing Cinder’s semblance, used a blast of heat to melt the ice, revealing an older, but still modern car, which was currently being leased by Roman, who needed to occasionally leave Vale in order to make deals with smaller dust companies. 

Roman drove, Mercury in the front passenger seat, while Jaune held Cinder in the back, not ever letting her go. 

Honestly, Roman felt terrible that he couldn’t be there for Cinder at the same time, but, if he was being honest with himself, he did not know how he could. He didn’t have that emotional spark that Jaune had. That radiance that made people open up. Roman felt a little inferior as a bondmate, still loved, but never the as naturally comforting as his boyfriend was, after all, it was why he fell in love with him.

It was half six by the time they made it to the Beacon Airship station, where a small single airship lay running, reserved just for them. Again, they piled in, and flew the short distance, landing in just fifteen minutes. As all four departed the automated airship, Jaune locked eyes with a single man waiting for them. As the three former criminals noticed, they turned and also locked eyes with the brown eyed and white haired headmaster of Beacon Academy, waiting for them with his cane in one hand, and his cup of steaming brown beverage in the other. 

“Miss Fall,” Ozpin stated somberly, nodding to her. Part of her wished he would say something along the lines of ‘this was all a test, and you passed’ or, ‘I’m sorry, I made a mistake. There is no way this is going to work’. However, Ozpin said no such thing, and simply turned, leading them to his tower. 

Piling all five of them into an elevator, they descended the floors, instead of ascended as they usually did to his office, no jostling. No cable snapping. No matter how much any of them wished, today was happening. It was a risk, a gamble, and everything was on the line for Cinder Fall.

Finally, a light bell was heard as the doors opened, and Ozpin stepped out. Seeing a face Cinder had not seen in years. 

She froze, her knees knocking together. Even as Jaune attempted to help her, she could not remove her eyes from the scarred face, hundreds of feet from her. 

She felt remorse and guilt hit her like a goliath going hundreds of miles per hour. She saw that face, and finally accepted that today was happening.

Words never spoken to her echoed in Cinder’s mind as she looked at the face across the room. “Do you believe, in destiny?”

She could hardly escape the words, all while she looked ahead to the machine, the pod, and the face of Amber, the Fall Maiden.

To Be Continued...


	13. Red Like Roses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cinder descends into the Vault, spotting the woman she once left for dead in the pod and instantly feels guilt and remorse. But when she steps into the second pod, in an attempt to revive the half dead Amber, will Cinder live to see the result? Will any of them?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We've had this chapter planned since the start of this story, since the first day we even planned the whole fic and now we're finally here. The song choice was my own and you're probably wondering why choose it if the chapter has no relevance to Team RWBY or any of the Rainbow Girls? The first set of lyrics still work for this situation and the characters included I think. Enjoy...

Forward from Cinder Fall, co-proprietor of ‘From Dust Till Dawn’, to Headmaster Ozpin of Beacon Academy.

Headmaster Ozpin, after much deliberation, many sleepless nights and too much thought about my actions and reflecting on the past few weeks and almost months, I believe that the path that I am currently taking is what we must take if all of us are truly going to be able to change. Roman, Mercury, and myself, fundamentally for the better. 

A while ago I made a near-fatal mistake. One that sealed my fate and set me on the path I am only just straying from. If I can’t undo what was attempted, then maybe I can rectify and change it back to the way it was, if not for the better, so that she can not have any more power in this world, and over me. 

I believe you may have a way to revive Amber, or at least, ensure she has a better quality of life than she does right now, but it would require the use of an Aura Transfer. With a few recalibrations and updated algorithms I believe you can use it to channel the aura I took from her back into her body, and hopefully revitalise her so that she may regain consciousness and not remain in the stasis she is in now.

At least, I have to try, to right the largest of my wrongs. 

-Cinder Fall.

Cinder could not stop looking at the face directly ahead of her, with her eyes shut and the darkened mark over her, in all other respects, quite beautiful complexion. 

It was her, the Fall Maiden, only half sapped from the fateful day that kept flashing in and out of Cinder distressed and further twisting mind, the dark thoughts and malicious whispers threatening to join her. Cinder kept involuntarily casting her mind back to the day on the trail, with the leaves just beginning to sprout from their buds on the trees and bushes. When the air was crisp and smelling so aromatic, with the path less travelled being completely deserted save for one quaint and amorous woman with staff and reins in hand on horseback. 

The obsidian haired woman in her dress as red as roses in full bloom was a little younger then, but by much. She remembered how her hair was exceptionally shorter, and how she would love to have it that short again, fun and not overbearing her mind. Cutting it would be like a symbol of cutting off the old part of her life; and maybe she would after today.

Cinder also recalled how rare it was to see a real horse in the open, such as the one she saw Amber riding that day, and how fair and quaint the young half maiden looked with her hair so clean and her mellow brown eyes gleaming as if smoke danced behind them, but all while Emerald had been setting up her mirage. That was how Cinder saw her. Hiding with Mercury from behind the veil of the illusion that now, all three of them regretted. It would be difficult to describe how much Cinder had felt like a pawn, and an idiotic one at that. She was always playing right into a master’s hands the entire time, her entire life. 

She thought of how the battle ensued when dear little Emerald failed to hold the illusion past Amber as Cinder and Mercury secured their positions. How Cinder had seen the full wrath of the Maiden’s powers first hand and how with the help of her minions, surpassed them and brought down the poor woman in her beautiful brown corset and plain white blouse, all with the scattered jewelry and pins and chains; her heeled boots at the time reminding both Cinder and her blonde lover of his former Mistralian partner. The flash of muted green phased into Cinder’s view as she looked more intently at Amber in her pod, the cloak she was wearing with the hood to cover her gorgeous brunette hair that day, she remembered liking it, reflecting on how harmoniously the muted green accompanied the white of her blouse and the brown of her leather cuirass. All of Amber’s colours were Autumn colours, and when Cinder had first seen her face, as she was so sweetly taken by Emerald’s illusion, the current half maiden was in a daze, just as she was in the moments, just looking at what she had done to the poor woman. 

In her mind Cinder let out a meek and pathetic apology, to a woman who couldn’t hear her, even if she had spoken it aloud.

Then she remembered the previous night, her dream, and how horrific it was indeed. How she was back in the plains of the Underworld, or what she had come to call it, on her knees and bowing before her previous master. The white flesh broken by the red and crimson streaks of Grimm corruption, again, what Cinder had come to suspect from the woman, the witch. Salem.

“Kindly, Cinder Fall, would you kill Ozpin?” Were her words, ringing again in Cinder’s mind, and much to her own disdain as she looked towards the white haired wizard standing next to her with his cane. He was seemed bold as brass, just like always, never letting his own thoughts run out onto his face or be expressed by his body. He was like a puzzle box with the way he operated, as if Ozpin was the only person in the world who could see the man behind the curtain.

Yet, here he was, looking at her with such an inquisitive look, as if he could tell what dreams had plagued her the night before with his deep and powerful hazel eyes always captured by the quizzical spectacles he wore. Only one person had ever saw him without them, and she was currently in Mistral, enjoying a vacation with her girlfriends, trying to forget the man with silver hair existed all together.

“Well, Cinder Fall, do you believe in destiny?” Ozpin asked her, demanding and deep in pitch. It was as if he were commanding her to answer on the spot, her eyes already swollen with faint tears and puffy redness from the night previous, and the morning she had just gone through the motions for. It was a toying question, and one Cinder had no real interest in answering but she could not abscond from the irony he was getting at, even if she had never been asked the question before in her life.

Although, she felt as if she had. 

Jaune’s hand encompassed her right, as Roman’s did the left, and they both held her close, pooling all their love into her to try and stall the tears from pouring forth once again; the oncoming process was going to be painful enough without a pyre of emotion exploding inside of her. She still had tears in her eyes as she looked back to Amber in the pod, in her state of stasis, just imagining what the woman was feeling, if she was feeling anything, and how many of the thousand ways the process could go wrong. 

Cinder began to feel weightless, completely so, as if she would faint and float to the ceiling of the vault, then through and up into the world again, and then up even more. She was hoping that Jaune and Roman would catch her, hold her down, but her head felt so very full and then dense. She was so stressed and caught between so many instincts, she just wanted it all to be over with, if she could even muster the courage to go through with it. 

The words of her intimate and caring lover brought her back from the daze she was in. 

“Cinder?” Jaune spoke softly, caringly and almost quiet as a whisper as he held onto her arm tightly, not wanting to let her go into the second pod. He was less sure the procedure would work than the ever silent Ozpin. “It’s okay, Cinder, you don’t have to do this, there are other ways to get Amber back, right Ozpin?” The worried teen looked to his headmaster, searching for some reassurance as Cinder became entranced with the girl in the pod.

The Headmaster himself looked towards the pod, the result of one of the less than ethical technological prototypes from himself, Ironwood, and the Schnee Dust Company. 

It had never been tested.

Hell, it had never even been calibrated aside from a few simple tests of reviving Amber alone and then keeping her alive, only just within a state of homeostasis. This would be its first real test and Cinder would be the first ever participant. She was already wriggling with the thought of stepping in, being locked inside that cold, metal, almost coffin. The obsidian haired half maiden was nowhere near ready, but Cinder knew she’d never be. The Faux Fall Maiden had to do it today, and move on. What scared her is that she didn’t know whether she’d be moving on with her life, or to her after life. 

“I have to do it,” she spoke, her voice carrying a little weight to it as she gripped Jaune’s hand tighter. “We’ve waited long enough, I’ve been living with borrowed power long enough, and it’s time I actually did something that’s any good for once in my life,” she added, letting go of Roman’s hand to turn wholly to Jaune, holding both of his hands in hers and looking a little determined, with her amber eyes regaining some of their warm glow. At times the blonde had seen her reduced to a tiny ember, and then flare up to a blazing inferno. Now she was a warm and gentle flame, not scorching, as Salem had indoctrinated her to be, but something that brought life and warmth to her lovers, and friends. Jaune thought her to be magnificent and brave as he held her.

Cinder kissed her paladin, her knight whose armour was never shining, closely, deeply and with tears finally escaping her eyes, holding him so close as Roman came around them both and joined the embrace, making it so close and warm with his own slightly spicy aura and her warm glow. Even the dapper gent in his silver coat and same as ever bowler hat was beginning to cry, they all were, the sleek and grey Mercury Blake in his slate coloured huntsman suit covering his comforting panties and bra was invited into the embrace. 

Her taller, ginger partner kissed the top of her head, holding his old boss close to him as she and his smaller, more blonder lover kissed in perfect harmony. Of course he was not jealous, Roman never was, although he could not help but think that there was a time in his life where he might have been.

Seeing Cinder, seeing Jaune, even seeing Mercury, he never even thought jealousy was a valid emotion anymore, not after all they’d been through. Although he knew Cinder had, and was continuing, to go throw an even rockier path up the highest mountain any of them ever had. And it was voluntary, all at her own behest a couple of months ago, when she decided she wanted to try something that could change their lives forever. 

She would try to revive Amber, and beg her forgiveness.

Lips parted lips, and then joined with those of the dapper ginger, for a few seconds, then the top of Mercury’s head until Cinder finally bit back her tears and they all walked forward to the pods. Amber, to Cinder looked even more sad close up, as the obsidian haired half maiden placed her unexpectedly steady palm on the pane of glass separating it from Amber’s cheek, the one blotched with blackness where the Grimm instrument had done its horrific job of sapping the power from her and forcing her to look like she did.

“How long, has she been like this?” Cinder asked, her voice sounding so varied and crippled, as if she were looking at Amber’s corpse, and was alone. It slew her inside a little to see and this of what she had done. “Since the day on the trail? Did I do this to her?”

Ozpin let out a slight hum as he and Jaune inputted the correct commands and sequences into the main console of the machine. Cinder’s stomach flipped and she felt completely sick, suddenly wanting to hide, but she knew that would hardly help, she needed to help the poor woman. 

White eyebrows tilted as the headmaster looked at the concern flashing across Cinder’s face. It was strange, or more so curious, to see how far Cinder had come. Ozpin actually saw true remorse in her amber eyes, and regret in her tears. Ironic more than anything, as he could see so many different possibilities and combinations of events leading to the vault and the machine. With his semblance he could see so many things, so many differences of how he envisioned Amber would return from the pod, or perhaps not.

Taking a small device from his back pocket, the wizard moved his hand towards Cinder’s midriff, to the belt that was practically part of her flesh. And with a monumental feeling of weightlessness and relief from the half maiden, the strap clunked and released, dropping from around her to the floor. She was free, as free as she could ever want to me, and free to love Jaune and Roman as she wanted. 

The belt was gone.

Cinder Fall was the last person, aside from one other, in the whole of creation that Ozpin thought would be stepping into the machine to attempt to solve the problem that was the Fall Maiden.

The last series of number and command sequences finally fell through, and the machine revved up, signalling like something sentient that it was ready to be put to its use; Aura Transfer. That was how Cinder was going to attempt her plan, by channelling back the power she took along with some of her own aura to revive Amber and return the dark haired girl to her former strength. It would erase the mistake, make everything back to the way it was, or at close as it could get without turning back time.

Ozpin caught Cinder before she could even move towards the second pod on the right side of the machine. Swiftly, and without a warning he shoved a small item into her now trembling hands, a small and quaint pendant of a smooth orange stone, it matched the same colour of Cinder’s own eyes, amber, with a broken pin where it must have fallen from her verdant cape, and with three small feathers brushing from it; red, green and yellow. 

“Hold onto this, it may help you,” Ozpin told her quietly as Jaune and Roman waited for her near the pod. Cinder was completely frozen solid, feeling so numb at every single section of exposed skin, as if her red like roses dress was stuck to her. “Oh, and one more thing. Try to think positively, it could help.”

With her hands shaking almost visibly, Cinder Fall took the pendant and held it tightly in her grasp, so tight that the edges and the still sharp shard of metal around the back, where the clasp had shattered, began to dig into her palm and fingers; there was no way she would release or let go, she could already feel it make her think of Amber before the trail, before Emerald, Mercury and Cinder herself had reduced her to the comatose husk in garbs to cover herself in the pod. She was thinking of who Amber really was as she took step after fearful and careful step towards her own pod; what kind of food Amber would eat as a guilty pleasure, if she ever loved anyone, how many walks would she take in the Spring, Summer and Fall. What Academy did she go to? Did she even go? How did she become the Fall Maiden? So many questions, and Cinder doubt that she would ever get to ask them even if the procedure was a success. Maybe Jaune could ask her. 

Jaune.

Cinder’s mind couldn’t help but be cast to him as she took his hand and he helped her, with Roman taking her other, into the pod, still clutching Amber’s pendant and trying not to focus on what could happen to her. Jaune was, to Cinder, the most important man in the world, the one who had truly saved her life from itself, and the man who had loved her every single day and made her feel so safe and strong. And he had done the same for Mercury Black and even Roman Torchwick. Jaune truly was a paladin and there was no way she could ever thank him enough. She hoped he would be safe, and keep his lovers forever so, should she not survive.

‘Don’t think like that,’ Cinder thought to herself, resting in the pod the most nervous she had ever been in her short life. She had no clue what was really about to happen. ‘Of course you’ll survive, you lived past her, you lived past losing Emerald. You lived when it all came tumbling down and you lived past those White Fang members in the street with Jaune. You’re coming out of this, and so is she.’

The door on the pod closed shut a little faster than Cinder would have liked and she was sealed in, just, waiting on Ozpin or Jaune to activate the machine and begin the process. And Cinder Fall had never been so scared in her life, holding Amber’s pendant so close her palm almost bled. 

She breathed, a long and sour breath that she was almost convinced would be her last, hearing the machine slowly light up and wheeze itself into life, blue glowing all around to the bittersweet splendor of it all. But she was still terrified, tears fully coming from her eyes as the metal and machinery around her hissed and revved and became functional, the pod itself starting to glow around her.

Cinder Fall could feel a slight gnawing pain in the back of her neck, a slight stinging pain as the she could hear and feel the machine reach its potential and maximum power, Ozpin at his station, hitting keys and buttons to keep the whole thing stable and ensure that nothing bad happened. Jaune and Roman and Merc were all still in front of her pod, looking to her all with eyes and faces that were trying to keep her calm through glass window.

“Stand back from the machine Jaune,” Ozpin calmly whispered out from the control console as the aura transfer began. Mercury and Roman each placed a hand on his shoulders, forcing him to take a few steps back.

The obsidian haired half maiden cried out in agony as she felt her very soul, the fibre of every strand of her being coming unlaced and taken apart with every second. Her aura wasn’t just being taken from her, not just the powers she had taken too, her aura and semblance and power felt as if it were being physically ripped from her spinal column, like some kind of steel cable that her body was holding onto with all its might.

All poor Cinder could feel, was that it was as if something or someone was reaching into her body, taking hold of the very ethereal object that made her her, the entire life force and nervous system, and wrenching it out through the back of the neck. And the pain, the pain was more excruciating than anything she could have ever have imagined. 

It felt like she was being killed, being stabbed and beaten, every single nerve ending in her entire body simultaneously attacked in perfect unison, while it was being pulled through the head of a pin, which was imbedded in her skull. It was unlike any other experience imaginable.

She wanted it to stop, to cease and desist and end. Cinder wanted the door to open and for the process to be done and finished, and if Amber were okay it were only be an added bonus, but at the moment, Cinder was unsure she handle anything. She was naked, vulnerable, and while not physically, her aura was gone.

Everything was up in the air and gone, she was taking all of the pain the process was dealing to her and it was getting unbearable.

Cinder’s chest was cramping, then wheezing and convulsing, feeling as if it were going to give out and fail completely, implode inside her then kill her in the most gruesome of ways. She was so scared, overwhelmed by the fear as it became harder and harder to breathe through the crushing weight of the machine pulling her and extracting the aura from Cinder, sapping her dry of all strength and just leaving a massive bubble of pain. The tears were balling from her eyes as Cinder held the pendant in a tight fist, almost causing her hand to bleed, holding it to her failing chest as the machine never stopped.

Then came the sudden influx of emotion from deep in Cinder’s mind, all while it was simply impossible for her to hold back the intense screaming and wailing as the pain became too much. 

The half maiden shrieked with all the air left in her, and kept screaming, the pain of the machine taking Cinder out of herself, taking her somewhere else rippling through her and making her nerves convulse and shrivel with such a pyre in her bones. She felt as if she were on fire, as if she had been hit directly to the upper brest and she was slowly being sapped, and her screaming never stopped, how could it? The pain was never ending even as Cinder Fall felt the last droplets of her aura be stolen and sapped from the back her neck and her screaming broke into a white hot wailing.

Her mind shot from her body, trying to help and save itself from the pain coursing through her. Cinder could feel the fear, so much of it all around her as her mind left herself, seeing her life years ago, seeing the place the end of the world, seeing Salem with her burning crimson eyes and ghostly white skin, with her cracked complexion and ghastly air and demeanor, the Queen of all Grimm and evil in the world. Cinder couldn’t dare face her again, it reminded her of her dreams the night before, and the horrible voice. “Tell me, Cinder, do you believe in destiny?”

The same words from a form of dream induced by the pain, and she was stuck her old hell with the witch. 

Then, Salem changed, her wicked smile and threatening air dissipating and vanishing on the ethereal wind as Cinder’s emotion and mind changed to guilt, to regret, a huge swath of it blustering in on her dreaming tide. She realised she was no longer awake, the pain had taken her away and she was simply unconscious inside her pod with the faint sound of Jaune shouting her name outside of her mental bubble. She could barely hear it loud enough to take notice but outside, in the real world as Ozpin masterminded his machine and both pods were glowing a bright and ominous bronze, Jaune was relentlessly shouting her name as she lay there with her eyes close and her mouth open, the machine still sapping her dry and pooling it into the middle, only to spit it back out into the second pod. And yet still Cinder’s dreaming mind was in a whirlpool of regret and guilt.

She saw Jaune’s face, decrepit and drained of the happiness he had one year ago when he was the leader of Team JNPR, now all he was, was her caretaker, her man and her lover but still she felt as if she was holding him down like an anchor. 

Then was Roman’s face, darker and alone. She saw him as nothing without Neo, and of course she felt responsibility for it, she was responsible for it all and still had no idea how the dapper ginger could ever say he loved her, because she knew that he was missing Neopolitan with all his heart, and it broke Cinder in two. 

Mercury was next, much to the same extent as Roman, he was so different. He was beautiful and he seemed, on the outside, to be happy about where he was, expressing himself and his identity, with Jaune and being completely in love and never leaving the other, they were too good together. She thought he was the strongest out of all of them, the new Mercury Black in all his glory. But Cinder knew, or thought at least, that he was still looking for a way to murder her in the most foul of ways for splitting him from his metaphorical sister. 

And that caused the crimson eyes and beautifully mint hair of her old flame, or perhaps burn, to come into Cinder Fall’s view in her special dream. Except Emerald Sustrai was not as passive as Jaune, or Roman, or Mercury. She was angered, Cinder could tell from the rubied fire in her gorgeous eyes that still sparked the old ember inside the half maiden, even in her dreams. 

With a devilish slap to Cinder’s face Emerald smiled maliciously and her eyes glowed even more reddish. And then, as quickly and celestially as she and all the rest had appeared, she vanished, and Cinder knew whom she would see next.

It was the brown eyes, darkish skin and brunette hair of the woman in the pod opposite her side, only, instead of staying stationary, silently judging Cinder from across the air in her dream, Amber opened her eyes and her mouth in a gasp. 

She was awake.

And for a long, endless moment, Amber and Cinder were mirrors, they were reflections of the other, and yet Cinder could somehow feel herself and Amber, but it was the same feeling. 

She could feel, in her haziness and her unconscious mind, that she and Amber were one, one and the same, with the same arua and the same signature and the same, everything. Amber’s memories were Cinder’s and Cinder could feel her own, horrific and vulgar and vulnerable memories transfer to the beautiful half maiden before her. 

The girl was inside her mind, inside her soul and sharing them, and she was gaining strength off of it too. The scenery was changing, from two tiny babies being born before two mothers and two fathers, to then an obsidian haired young woman kneeling before a wicked old witch with stark white hair and burning red eyes in a land of purple, to then the same obsidian haired woman in a red dress in a town somewhere else, Vacuo to Cinder’s eyes, cornering another young girl with mint hair and barely anything to cover her beautiful and tanned skin. The next flash was to a house, burning atop a mound with a young boy standing, his legs so bloodied and his hair grey, before Cinder herself, and Emerald, much younger and much less weary, no bags under their eyes. 

Finally, Amber entered the scene, on a deserted trail in the middle of seemingly nowhere, on horseback as a child knelt in front. And Cinder was crying, for the wave of guilt hit her so hard over what she had done, and had Emerald done, and how she truly regretted it. She was mortified, still holding the scars and weight of her foul trickery. 

She saw herself using the glove, the foul and vulgar tool Salem had given her and Cinder was helpless to stop herself. She felt the same pain in the back of her neck again as the scene sped up slightly, and the powers of the Fall Maiden transferred halfway to the obsidian haired woman. Only Cinder felt the pain again and she could feel herself lose that relative power, only not fully, just a small increment, along with her aura.

The feelings merged, the memories even further, the emotions and even the mentalities. Suddenly Amber, in her own pod, slowly gaining back her strength and her everything could see fully inside Cinder Fall’s mind. She saw Salem, she saw Emerald, what had happened, Neo, Roman and the mission gone horribly wrong. She saw the trail and the Grimm from a different perspective, she saw the plan, the failed plan and the aftermath. The fallout with Adam Taurus while he was still alive and the fight that ensued. Cinder falling into depression and being found, saved by Jaune Arc. 

Amber saw Jaune, in all his yellow and armoured glory, the paladin that she had instantly decided she would very much like to meet and converse with. 

She saw Ozpin. Headmaster Ozpin and how he had left her in the vault, a dungeon for months with no real intent of saving her beyond her stasis until Cinder had suggested anything of the sorts. And she saw his attitude and his malice, his twisted sense of rehabilitation with the poor woman, the belt and the switch, the way he was going to put her down like a rabid dog the moment he sensed her slip out of line. And Amber decided she was no longer going to take it. She was going to be free, and she was going to help Cinder. She was going to help Cinder Fall, the woman who would have her murdered in an instant if not for the huntsman with the large silver blade and the white suit and the smell of alcohol all over him. 

Amber’s eyes opened, and she gasped, a vigourous and well deserved gasp into life. While at the same time, Cinder’s eyes popped open and she took another breath, only to close again, and seemingly stop. 

The half maiden, Amber, took in a vitalised breath and life and banged her fists as hard as she could, with no energy in her bones still, and begged so desperately to leave her cage as the machine powered down, the process complete. Amber, was alive, and she was almost laughing at that fact.

‘I’m alive.’ She thought, as the door opened and she collapsed to her knees with Roman Torchwick to catch her. 

Not long after, the machine slowly died, with the levels of blue and orange channeling back into Cinder’s pod where her aura slithered back into her spinal column through the same place in the back of her neck, no more pain, not at least she could feel being unconscious, waiting in her head to be back in her lover's’ arms.

Ozpin quickly stabilized the aura flow and channeled it back equally as quickly, bringing the power levels of the machine down and switching it off, ending all processes. It was finished, the whole tormenting experience, the whole process, and Amber was alive, she looked fine to Jaune and Roman’s perspective, if anything unused to feeling actual ground beneath her feet. None of them wanted to hamper a guess as to how long she had been stuck in the pod waiting for someone to save her. Only Amber knew and no one, certainly not Ozpin, had the intention or notion that her life mattered, she was completely expendable as she’d seen from Cinder’s shared memories. She saw the white haired wizard and judged him as a villain, the same as Salem and the others, worse so, fighting with his mind and manipulating everyone around him. 

He had indoctrinated and manipulated Jaune, then Cinder, and the rest. He was just as bad as Salem, the perfect cold mirror to the witch was the wizard. 

Finally the door to Cinder’s pod opened up and she fell, still knocked out from the ungodly amounts of stress and pain on her aura and spinal column, landing onto Jaune’s open arms while Amber slowly regained her footing while latching onto Roman for dear life. Cinder soon regained consciousness in Jaune’s warm embrace and her amber eyes opened more reflective and clear than when she entered the machine. In Jaune’s grip she felt lighter, less like the metal she was trapped in before and more like a fabric, as if her dress had became her body. She felt better too, her skin easy to the touch and more vibrant as if she was no longer weighted down, Cinder felt.

“Well?” Mercury asked, helping Cinder with Jaune as Ozpin stepped away from the console and regained his clockwork cane and academy branded mug of still warm Cocoa. Amber was still breathing heavy but Roman had her, in his arms and ensuring she wasn’t going anywhere, even going so far as to wrap his scarf around her neck and lace his jacket over her bare shoulders. She was cold obviously from the shivering and how bare she was, in her medical underwear and barefoot, and the floor was so cold as the vault powered down and grew a little darker. “Did it work? What happened?” The grey haired teen almost yelled, wondering greatly if his dear friend and boss was okay, and what exactly had happened to Amber.

The brunette struggled but eventually stood on her own, holding Roman’s white collar jacket close to her as she extended her left hand out and stretched out her palm, her flesh a tone lighter than usual from the months and months of being locked in a pod of a dark cellar. With a quick and fierce breath Amber huffed and channeled the tiny amount of strength she had into her palm, her aura and maidenhood flaring.

In the palm of her hand a small flame blasted, the heat of a powerful furnace. She had her power, she was the Fall Maiden once again.

But Amber’s mellow, slightly ignited eyes were dragged across to the left of the hall, along with Roman’s and Ozpin’s to Cinder’s position in Jaune and Merc’s hold, as the other half maiden was holding out her palm, her right palm and creating a flame of the same height and luminosity as she struggled to regain her breath. 

Cinder Fall, was also the Fall Maiden, or rather, both Cinder and Amber were the Fall Maiden. 

“It worked,” Amber breathed, in a pleasant and naturally feminine tone, unlike Cinder’s and unlike many others, her tones sounded much like Blake’s or almost those of the Mistralian warrior woman. It was a cool and quaint tone, nice and pretty in pitch. Still looking at Cinder, her whiskey eyes scoured the dark hall to meet the warm and returning amber orbs of her other half, her mirror girl who stifled the flame in her hand by closing it. As they looked at each other, piercingly and slightly hostile, before the joint understanding crept in with the flame of the Fall Maiden in their eyes. Amber and Cinder both reached a silent pact, both thinking and feeling the same thing, their distrust of Ozpin and their sudden sense of creed over each other. They were both the maiden now, and they had both been kept in vulnerable pools of despair for so long by the white haired wizard. 

“I’m the Fall Maiden again, with Cinder, we’re… Two halves of the same person now,” Amber breathed in a certainly melancholic tone with an added weight of disappointment. Both Roman and Jaune could tell that she in no way was happy about her power returning and she certainly did not wish to keep it as she shook her fist and held the jacket close to her again. “But,” she began to chuckle a little, “I’m alive!” The brunette half maiden burst, with a changed glee and smile, leaping to Roman and hugging him closely, a thankful gesture for helping her up and holding her up as she adjusted. 

“Wait a sec, I’m completely confused,” Mercury piped up, still holding Cinder with Jaune and keeping her warm as she adjusted to the significant lack of aura and unstable levels of energy and strength, the machine had utterly annihilated her and left her so tired. “What the hell d’ya mean? You’re both the Fall Maiden now?”

“I thought the plan was for Amber to take the power back? If Cinder is still half a maiden then what exactly revived you, Amber?” Jaune inquired to the half maiden standing taller and taller with Roman, her smile fading back to a judging frown at the mention of her maidenhood.

She really did not wish to have the powers anymore. She was finished as the Fall Maiden the day Cinder wanted to take them from her. 

Cinder, at that moment, coughed rather audibly, her chest still crushed a little from the weight of having her aura forcibly removed for the most part and then having it crammed back into her. Her back was killing her, combined with the piercing pain in the middle of her chest she was surprised she could even keep her eyes open, but their day was not yet done.

“It was, my aura.”

Ozpin stopped sipping his coffee and moved in between Amber and Cinder, suddenly curious at just what went on inside the infernal machine. “And how exactly did that happen?” The headmaster asked in such an inquisitive tone the paladin at her side almost instantly became a defensive lion for his half maiden. He gave no regard for Amber in that process, and certainly none for Cinder, he never would have even thought of using Cinder to revive the tanned brunette across the way if not for the obsidian haired repentive half maiden. 

“I’m not sure, but, I could feel Amber, feel her--”

“Memories,” Amber interrupted, stepping forward and around Ozpin to kneel in front of her metaphorical opposite and yet soul sister. There were so opposite, in physical appearance, in memory, past lives, and then yet they were exactly the same. “I saw Cinder’s memories and she saw mine. We saw into the other’s mind and everything inside,” Amber was looking so deeply into Cinder’s eyes it was as if their entire past had been dashed and the slate wiped clean, and not only that but they were on such a deeper level of understanding between themselves, they were already becoming close, a bond forming from the process and the shared aura.

Amber, in all honesty, already felt drawn to Cinder Fall, and Cinder to her other half. 

“If it would be agreeable with you, Miss Amber, I would prefer for you to stay at Beacon for the remainder of Winter Break,” Ozpin began, sipping his chocolate beverage once again as Amber and Cinder remained locked in thought with each other, the same, shared thought of how exactly bonded they were, both existing as the Fall Maiden at the same time, something that was theoretically, impossible. “We can hopefully run some tests and gauge what exactly has changed with you.”

Amber stood, turning back Ozpin with her defiant eyes burning brightly with the flame of the Fall Maiden, while at the same time, smaller embers blazed in Cinder’s connecting them. 

“I will never go anywhere with you, Ozpin,” Amber ironed out, in a bass pitch almost with her naturally pleasant tone changing to one of seriousness and contradiction. She was certainly not entertained by the idea of remaining in the ‘care’ of the white haired wizard and his vault of dark secrets and unnatural equipment. Amber was certainly repulsed by the thought of the other things Ozpin had at this disposal. 

“You never had any intention of saving me, reviving me beyond that cage until Cinder, the woman who had put me in there in the first place, felt her guilt and regret,” the shorter half maiden continued. “You’re manipulative and a damn fool, evil in your own way and if you believe in your narcissistic hive mind that I would remain with you now, you are sadly mistaken sir.”

Ozpin did not dare crack the faint smirk he wanted to, surprised, but also not. Every word she had blasted at him was completely true and he knew it. Roman knew it, Merc knew it, and deep down so did Jaune. 

“Where will you go?” The headmaster asked, taking another sip as if Amber had said nothing to harm him. His pride and ego certainly remained intact without a dent or scratch. And he too was right about her. She had nowhere to go at all, if not Beacon Academy, she would be on the streets, probably endless searching for her horse in her soggy and recharging state. If she left Vale as she was, she would be soon handing off her half maidenhood to anyone.

Amber had no answer to the headmaster’s question. Only Cinder did. 

“She’ll come with me. With us. To the apartment, and we’ll look after you, Amber. I promise,” Cinder almost squeaked, standing up and removing her heels, unable to stand well enough as the boys propped her up, Roman helping as well, holding her up as they all looked, exchanged nods of confirmation and reassurance and walked out together, Amber joining the four and being held close for the warmth. 

Together, they left Ozpin to his vault and his mug, alone with his thoughts and the world in which he lived in. 

And the car ride home was slow, Cinder ever drifting off on Jaune and Amber’s lap, even while Amber slept on the blonde’s shoulders, oddly feeling the same sort of yearning for his frame as Cinder did. It was just the boys, awake with the roof of the car up and the tone rather quiet, no nerve for the radio in case of waking the sleeping girls. Mercury suggested they remain silent. There was no way in the world they could truly ever know how tired both women must have been, and for Cinder, it must have felt as if she was being put through a blender inside the vicious Aura Transfer Machine. 

“So, I don’t know about you boys, but the apartment’s kinda small,” Roman began, his hands gently on the wheel and leaning back in his seat, his bowler hat on Cinder’s sleeping head and his ginger hair just a little messy. Merc was out of his usual self too, looking absently out the window for once not thinking about his insecurities of wearing the sleek and comforting panties over his perky rear. “And, we only really have one more place for Amber to sleep--”

“Don’t worry about it buddy,”Mercury sighed, turning his head away from the window and looking to his roommate and teammate. “I’ll take the floor in the living room, Amber can lump in the bed for the night.”

“And I’ll take the couch, I have no idea how she’ll react to me being with her in the same bed, we’ll manage,” Jaune added from the back, exhaling the stress and worry from the past hour and few months from his aching bones. At least he could take away that it worst was over, the process was done, and he had come out of it with Cinder alive, and in a seemingly good condition, no damage that he could see or even sense as his aura took effect in the car. 

Jaune had another thought, remembering how closely Cinder had, and still was, holding onto the pendant that Amber had on her cape. Truly Cinder had still not let go of the jewel and was still holding it so close to her chest, as if her life depended on it, even in her sleep. It reminded him of the verdant gown. 

“Do we still have the cloak at the apartment too?” The paladin asked his boyfriends, hoping that he was right, it had taken so long for them to even acquire the material in eh right colour to craft a new one, a joint idea of Cinder and Mercury’s. 

Both gentlemen responded with an affirmative hum and Roman sped up just a touch, hoping that he could beat the afternoon traffic and return to his familiar domain and his lovely floor sooner. He missed his armchair and just needed a last smoke and a glass of something strong. In fact the three gents could all silently agree that a glass of brandy each was in order after the ordeal that was this terrible winter day. 

The evening rolled on a lot slower once they arrived at the apartment and returned to the events of the day. Being in no decent mood to cook, or even think up a simpler meal plan for dinner, Roman took out his scroll and ordered pizza from down their street, nothing fancy or extravagant, just plain toppings of barbecue chicken and for Amber; spicy beef. And dinner was exceptionally slow, almost all of them in different rooms except for Cinder and Jaune only the damaged half maiden felt as if she’d had a section of her severed being away from Amber that soon.

It all felt so strange to Cinder, suddenly feeling the burning urge to be near her other half, and Amber was her other half, so quickly. She could feel the power and maidenhood between the pair wanting to be whole, that it was in a way even more unstable than when Amber was in stasis, as if it were burning in both of them.

Evening rolled on before Cinder and Amber were finally alone; Roman had took to the store and stockroom in the shop below their apartment and Merc and Jaune were at the gym, training up the paladin to even better standards. He was getting better, so much better in fact, from training with both Mercury and Roman. 

Instantly there was the ember inside them burning vigorously inside of them, and Amber was actually smiling on the couch, her body looking a little closed off as her legs remained close together and her arms were locked in as she watched the television, some nature program with the sound turned terribly low. Cinder felt warmer as soon as she sat next to her other half, Amber in turn tilting herself and relaxing mildly to Cinder’s arrival. The medical underwear ad been replaced once they had returned to the apartment, now Amber was sporting a brand new blouse, frilly at the collar and short arm lengths to show off her fairly toned biceps and near perfect forearms; Cinder was amazed her arms hadn’t withered in that pod. She was glad they hadn’t, as well as Amber’s certainly toned legs covered by her simple, brown leather pants. Along with her huntress boots and cuirass, they were all that had been recovered in a suitable condition from the fight between Cinder herself and her two minions at the time. 

Amber didn’t want the boots anymore, or her bracer, or really the pants. She was through with being the Maiden, through with being a huntress almost entirely. The only reason she was even keeping her staff was in case she needed it, and then because she had already agreed to help train Jaune on even more variations of fighting, being seasoned herself.

“So,” Cinder began, not really knowing exactly what she was going to talk about. In truth she just wanted to talk to Amber, to be closer to her and warmer inside as a result. 

Whiskey eyes looked into amber orbs. “Are you feeling better? I got the feeling that you were fairly beaten up after that machine,” Amber asked, already slightly having the idea that Cinder was feeling much better after her nap and food, recharging her own levels. And her own amber eyes gave the answer right away, with the loving warmth from the maidenhood igniting her within, Amber too. It felt beautifully quaint and invigorating.

“Yeah, I’m feeling much better thanks, now that the belt’s gone and I’m no longer going through that--”

“Blender?” Amber finished for her other half. She took the exact word right from Cinder’s mind, so precisely, as if they were twins, or even the same person. Cinder grew a small grin and shuffled even a little closer to her new guest, who was growing the same smile, however stopped, with a huff, grabbing the remote from the arm of the couch and pointing it rather lazily at the television, her back slumping and her chest too inside the faintly loose blouse. She couldn’t really believe it at that moment, feeling her own body and recognising it as just a little different; her limbs may have somehow remained extremely closely the same, but her chest and her stomach were slightly too different, smaller in size and different in shape. Amber felt stupid noticing the first change be with her chest.

The next came when she began flipping the channels, seeing programming and shows that not only disinterested her, but also looked completely alien to her. She knew none of them until stopping after a while on some show, a small and horribly made soap opera that she would oddly watch whenever she was home, wherever that was; as she watched she saw it, the fact that almost the entire cast had changed, had been replaced with new and younger, less characterised faces and it saddened her to no end.

Amber was hit fairly hard by such a small detail, counting how long she had been in the horrible pod and it almost brought tears to her eyes once she realised it had been well over a year, nearly two. She had spent almost two years inside the pod and it was heartbreaking. Cinder was almost crying too, feeling the same aching heart as her other half.

Boldly, although feeling completely natural however, Cinder wrapped her arm around the whiskey eyed and teary half maiden, pulling her in close for a strange and yet, needed embrace, holding the dear Amber close and the spars flying around them from their aura, their shared aura. 

“I know it’s been so long, Amber, and I am so sorry for it,” Cinder pleaded, her own eyes spewing tears as her guilt and regret came swimming back into her mind. As amazing as holding her other half felt, she felt sick that she was, still after what had happened. 

“It’s okay Cinder.” 

Amber’s words were slightly unbelievable to her ears, unfathomable and terrible bewildering to the obsidian haired woman. How could she possible forgive her? Even with the infinite moment of the shared memories how could Amber toss aside what Cinder had done?

But in Amber’s mind it was fairly easy. Not only had she had two years to lose all her sense of worldly or self care, but she had seen inside Cinder’s mind, the entire spectrum, and she had seen the witch with the white hair, and the wizard too. Amber had almost instantly forgiven poor Cinder then, and upon exiting the pod, knew that the woman was just as damaged as herself. 

Removing her hands from around her fellow maiden, Cinder reached over the back of the couch, and to the table sitting behind it, fetching a pile of cloth, in a dark and sublime green that looked instantly familiar to Amber as she saw it. 

“We couldn’t find the original, so I tried my best to get the colour perfect for a new one.”

The expression of the other half maiden changed gradually and then all at once as Cinder stood and held the cloth in her hands, letting the full length of it be shown off and revealing the hood at the top. It wasn’t a sheet or verdant blanket as Amber originally thought and when she saw the hood forming and the bottom of the sheet flap instead of hitting the ground her whiskey eyes burned brightly was stars and glistened in the light of the living room and kitchen. It wasn’t just a cloak, it was her cloak, in every detail only is was new and unstained by the events of the day she lost. It was exactly like her and she was immediately in love with it. 

“Cinder, I-” She could hardly speak she was so choked up over the gesture. 

Her other half slightly blushed, trying so hard to contain the pink coming out in her cheeks as she held the cap forward a little more. “We all tried our best to make it, hoping that if you did come back, you’d like a new one.”

She did. Amber’s cloak was a part of her and having thought she’d lost it that day was already mildly tearing her up as she had and watched the boring television before. On any other day she’d roll up in her cloak and use it like a blanket, like a cocoon to protect herself, with the hood down or up, it never mattered which. Living alone almost all the time, the cape was in many ways one of Amber’s best friends, the only thing that could ever hug her in the night. 

“Thank you!” Amber yelled as she was handing the cloak and wasted no time in tossing it over her shoulders. Although, there was nothing to hold the areas of green where they would usually be held to her crisp brown leather bracer that guarded her broad shoulders. That was until Cinder moved around her slightly smaller other half to see how well the cloak fit. 

From the center pouch pocket of Jaune’s black hoodie that Cinder was currently wearing, combined with her baggy and long lounge pants, she brandished the copper stone with orange imbedded. Amber knew what it was as soon as the green, yellow and red. “My pendant?” She asked with a fluctuating degree of curiosity. But Cinder didn’t know how to answer side from folding over the two clasps of green fabric and pinning them together with the pendant, which she had had Roman fix while Amber napped that afternoon. 

And there they stood. Amber in her gown of green and new blouse with the beautifully golden pendant holding the cloak together and Cinder in her plain pants and lover’s hoodie, sleepy, from the immense crushing weight of the morning still lingering on her. And the day was still not done; Cinder had one more plan for the momentous day of change and new life. 

She took Amber, clad in her verdant cloak out into the alley, in her slippers and with her old, red as roses dress in hand, holding Amber’s with the other. There were no words that needed to be spoken, not of mutual understanding, but because she knew that Amber was reading her mind the entire way and knew exactly what Cinder’s idea was. Amber loved it, thought it perfect and such a positive gesture after almost two years of the regret and guilt hoisted over her like an anvil. Now was the time to end it, to stop the old lives that had already changed around the pair of them and move on, to let go of the past and begin a new, as friends.

That meant removing what remained. 

Cinder tossed her red and fiery dress onto the asphalt, into the muck and grime of the back alley as the muggy sky told of snow to fall. Then looking to her new companion Cinder smiled. She smiled for the first time since joining with Jaune really, after all the fear and stress and regret and guilt had been washed away by handing Amber her new cloak and her new life. They both nodded and suddenly all four of their eyes glowed with embers, then mighty pyres that outstretched; the power of the new Fall Maiden’s flaring up as each held out a palm and with their volition and simple strength, set fire to Cinder’s old red dress, leaving it to burn to ash as the night rolled on and the snow fell later. 

It was such a release, such a pleasing act for both Cinder and Amber, as they found reconciliation and closure. The past was left where it was, to be forgotten, along with Ozpin if only too soon. He would be left to his master plan and his dungeon. 

In the morning, Jaune awoke to find his bed empty, and, upon walking into the living room after his early shower, he found both maidens on the couch, the tv still on, with the girls sitting up and laying their heads back, Amber’s on Cinder’s shoulder. 

As the two half maidens slept, enjoying each other’s company, even in unconsciousness, the small television played a commercial that had premiered fairly recently. It was government sponsored, and was a fairly simple, low budget feature. All it showed was Headmaster Ozpin sitting in a large, comfortable-looking chair, with a small table beside him as he held his steaming mug. After taking a sip, he placed the drink down and began to speak.

“I understand many people, all over not only Vale, but Remnant as well were vastly disappointed by the decision to delay the Vytal festival indefinitely after issues with organized crime in and around Vale.” Looking directly into the camera, he gave the small smile of a card dealer to a man who had won one too many hands of blackjack.

“That is why I am proud to announce that the fortieth Vytal Festival and Tournament, will be taking place at the end of the spring this coming year. I hope to see each and everyone of you taking part in the festivities. Bring your friends, enjoy the jubilations, and most importantly.”

He took a second to have one last sip.

“Have fun.” He finished, with a slight wink to the camera, or more importantly, one who was viewing.


	14. Another Day In Paradise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The second day of the Mistral leg of the vacation kicks off with a morning at the beach. Neon and Ciel grow even closer together, taking to the ocean followed by the analyst determined to add the pastel haired feline to her notebook with her time. Glynda and Blake spend the morning reading, while Coco and Ruby spend time with some very old and very good friends of Coco and Team CFVY. And Pyrrha has a very bad start to her day. WARNING: Contains some heavy dysphoric tiggers in the opening.

Foreword by Miss Pyrrha Nikos to Mr Apollo Nikos,

Father, this will be the last letter I ever send to you, the last time you ever see something directly from me, and the last time I leave something for you. I’m leaving Mistral and aside from small and short vacations I do not feel I will return for a lengthy amount of time. And you are the only one to blame.

You shamed me and kept me a prisoner inside my own body until I was fifteen, forcing me to be something I was never simply because mother died and you wanted the Nikos name to have the same weight as it had when you were young and in Haven Academy. 

I will never be like you, nor was I ever meant to be like you. 

I was born a woman and it has always been my destiny to be a woman, the woman I am proud to be and call myself. My name was never the one you gave me, it was always meant to be Pyrrha, Pyrrha Nikos. And now I will finally be able to give that name weight and meaning. 

Goodbye father, I trust we will never meet again, and because of that, I hope you lead a good life, as I will lead mine.

For It Is In Passing That We Achieve Immortality  
~ Pyrrha Nikos

The tall redhead was currently standing in front of the mirror, frozen solid with the walls slowly closing in on her as the gleeful chuckled and light squeals of jubilation sounded off from outside the small changing room on the beach. It felt horrible, looked monstrous and all around humiliating as Pyrrha Nikos held her arms and tried her best not to move, not to look into her reflection that was altered, not to make a single peep as the tears formed once again and she felt so out of herself.

The mirror was so different to the one in her own dorm she used to have at Beacon, even to the many and abundant panes in the townhouse which had taken her weeks to adjust to. And now she was having the same horrific feeling as she occasionally looked into the one in front of her. But she could not escape it, the broad shoulders, the shorter hair, the slightly darker and heavy eyes. 

It was not her, and she had to keep telling herself that. The reflection was the monster, not the woman in the real world with the long and amorous hair, the flat and chiseled abdomen and the slender and beautiful shoulders that linked to her amazing arms. But the world, and Pyrrha herself could not listen or focus. The room was too dark, just like the day she had told Nora, when her dorm room was shrouded in black with the curtains drawn and the lights off, the bulbs even removed as she secluded herself. It was the same in the small stall she was trapping herself in as her girlfriends were out and enjoying the second day, the first full day of their vacation on the beach of Mistral in their beautiful and divine swimwear that Pyrrha had loved on every single body of all her sixteen partners. 

She had worn her two piece the day before, when they were all in a rush to get changed and down to the beach while waiting for the hotel room to be completed. She had Nora to help her then, had her to ground her as she had done so many times when there was an alien mirror in the room, showing Pyrrha the abomination that was her skin, showing her those old bold shoulders and the more masculine face, with the horrible nose and monstrous jawline. And without Nora, while she was also changing and seemingly forgetting Pyrrha, as she had disappeared so secretly into her own cubicle, those horrible and manly features were all that Pyrrha’s emerald eyes could see.

Even on the wooden walls in the muffled light they were all she could see. Even as her eyes swelled with tears and she felt her frame grow numb, or as she sank to the floor and covered her mouth to not dare let out the voice that she always thought was the one of old threatening to come out and take over.

Pyrrha always thought that her voice was the biggest lie, the largest mirage about her whole frame which was feeling so far away from her and so alien, as if she had stolen it from some woman who had never lived.

That was what it felt like at the worst of times. As if she was still male, still the fake male that had stolen the skin of some fair and beautiful woman who had died and now Pyrrha was living her life a lie. That she was always destined to be confined to her disgusting prison that made her constantly want to be sick and vomit.

Still she held her arms close and around herself, bunching up her knees close to her restraint chest, closed in by the tightness of the one piece swimsuit she really should not have put on, only did she just because she already felt so conserved and judgemental of her toned stomach. Any other time she would wear the two piece that hugged her lavishly, the perfect chest piece that showed her off and the cloth piece wrapped around as s skirt. Instead Pyrrha thought the plain blue one piece was the smarter option, only now she was feeling as if it was the worst pick, imprisoning her body even more and making her shoulders feel so broad again, her chest feel flat and more like a man’s and, staring down at her legs with tears streaming down from her eyes, she felt her legs grow bulky as they were years ago.

Again, just as before, Pyrrha held back her tears, even biting on her tongue and trying her best to breathe steadily through her nose as she blocked her mouth, crying so silently so as not to even make the slightest peep, not to let anyone near know she was crying, but to not let out the voice she was so convinced was the one of her old fleshy prison. 

It was Mistral too, the beach, the warm weather pounding down on her and her girlfriends, with her long hair feeling as if it was slightly burning like Yang’s did at times. It was being back in the place she grew up in her horrid prison, the one her father insisted she stayed in, until her Aunts saved her. 

Pyrrha ran her nails down her arm, trying so greatly to pierce the numb flesh and to bleed, to feel something as herself as the sobs poured out of her, still muffled greatly by her other hand. Her hair was let down, behind her neck and still it felt as if it were so short again, with no diadem to make her look beautiful, no nothing that would ever make her look like a woman. It felt so horrible, her legs and arms constricting along with her chest. 

She quickly tore the swimsuit off of her and sat there naked, her form still feeling so fake and made of nothing but plastic and fake flesh taken from somewhere else until Pyrrha finally let go and covered her eyes with her hands. Then she wept, fully and so violently with her female voice wailing into the empty stall. 

The despair and the crushing weight of the fakery Pyrrha felt came tumbling down of her naked body as she huddled herself up into a sobbing ball of limbs again, her hair falling down over her face as she cried into her stomach, which felt was hideous, and suddenly covered in hell ridden body hair as it was threatening to be ages ago. As she sat there, no clothes on her, not even her beautiful diadem, with all her girlfriends outside, unaware, she felt so selfish, so stupid.

She felt if they saw her, any of them, the vacation would be ruined in an instant and Pyrrha would be to blame. And yet she felt just so desperate, so needing of an anchor to pull her back into reality, something or someone that could remind her that she was Pyrrha Nikos, Pyrrha the Invincible Girl and not the old monster she used to be under her father’s twisted care. 

Her father. There came such a worse and dark thought. Apollo Nikos, the one person in her life that Pyrrha wished she would never ever meet again. She didn’t even dislike Jaune as much. Her father was the ultimate epitome of horrid absolution and the thought of him addressing her made her sob all the more as her shoulder felt so stiff and strong, broad and bulky; the shoulders Apollo Nikos was always proud of when he would show off his silent son to friends after Pyrrha had won a bout. 

“Stand up straight like a man, son, come up you fought with valor and vigor, show some of that now and straighten your legs. Don’t you dare touch your hips, you’ll look like a woman.”

It was always the same and it was ringing into Pyrrha’s mind like a terrible, terrible nightmare that she could not escape from. She needed to get out, of everything, out of her body that felt as if it was shifting and morphing before her very eyes, even the smooth folds between her thighs felt as if they were the old, awful, hideous slither of flesh and blood and she needed to tear it off with a blade. She needed to escape the stall, but could not dare leave the darkness as she felt so encased in her little bubble of despair. Pyrrha simply buried her head and wept all the more, with her arms and legs feeling so heavy and her torso feeling tight and without freedom, and with her nether regions feeling wrong, feeling as they did when she was a terrified little thirteen year old with no mother to call when she felt so wrong.

Pyrrha felt as if she was fading again, as she had done in her dorm room, fading from existence as the world cheered and yipped outside in glee while she cried so loudly, wishing it would all stop. She felt as if Pyrrha was becoming her dream again, and that the dead prison was about to wake up with the dead name in the dead household controlled by Apollo Nikos, with his almost abusive regime and his oppressive schedule for her. 

The redhead threw her head back against the wicker wall with her eyes almost glued shut and the tears streaking from them, her teeth together with the ringing of her father’s old dirt voice. She could no longer hold back her voice, it was all too much and she was feeling so close to smashing the mirror with the broad shouldered man looking back at her with her emerald eyes and shorter red hair. Pyrrha opened her mouth slowly, tears still forcing their way out of her eyes as she opened them too, emerald dulled by darkness and puffy swelling as the tears fell. 

“N...Nora?” Pyrrha squeaked, biting her lip as she heard, thankfully, her lighter tones that were higher in pitch and sounding as celestial as ever only trembling with the tears and fear as the reflection of the hideous prison looked back at her. “Nora!” Pyrrha yelled at the top of her lungs and then quickly buried her head into her arms and legs again, weeping to herself until she heard the frantic footsteps and high breathing of the familiar redhead.

The wicker door flew open, nearly off of its hinges and Nora stood there, mortified as she let in the light from the beach. She flicked the light on, Pyrrha had left in the bulb this time, and quickly shut them both inside the cubicle. 

“Oh dust Pyrrha,” Nora breathed before quickly falling to her knees, setting her bag down and holding her fellow redhead in her arms as she sobbed uncontrollably. “What happened my love?” Nora asked, holding her lover’s head close to her bosom. 

The ginger was wearing a rather sporting one piece with a frilly pink skirt, looking very much like her huntress clothing, even with the heart shaped window at the top of her bust. Nora had even already been in the ocean, probably with Neon and Ciel, as they were the first ones in, with their alluring two pieces they were teasing the girls, but not when Weiss and Winter entered with top of the line super soakers containing maliciously iced water as ammunition.

“Nora… I’m so sorry, the mirror. All I can see is me, and I’m a monster,” Pyrrha wept as Nora clutched at her naked body. She felt so confined, although coming back just a little as Nora held her, stroking her red hair to remind her of its length, then kissing her head and holding her perfectly curved waist, bringing feeling back to it slightly. 

“It’s okay Pyrrha,” Nora lulled to her warrior princess, who was now slowly coming round to gentle sobs. 

The ginger looked to the mirror, and snapped the same idea as she had that day at the dorm, only with the added parameter of Nora’s bag that she tossed to the floor. In the bag was a couple more articles of clothing, including Pyrrha’s two piece just in case she had wanted to change into it at a later date, with her sandals and cloth skirt. But the little booper waited, she simply sad with Pyrrha gently weeping in her arms, with her head buried in Nora’s chest and the ginger running her fingers through her long and beautiful hair. 

“Hey, it’s okay Pyrrha, you’re not a monster, you’re beautiful.” She helped her girlfriend up, remembering how hard and how beautiful it was the first time she had ever helped when she was in her own pit of despair, in her bubble of self hate and destruction. When Nora had found her in her nightgown alone on her bed in the dark dorm, and how the ginger head helped the taller redhead up to the mirror as she was in the cubicle too. “See? Look at that girl, look at how beautiful she is,” Nora lulled, as Pyrrha tried to divert her gaze from, thankfully, the woman in the mirror as her faint tears did still fall.

Nora smiled, her small, beautiful smile that Pyrrha saw in the mirror and was forced to let out her own little chuckle at how cute the ginger looked. She noticed the curve of Pyrrha’s smile and tickled at her hips a little, her lovely, curving hips. “See, would a monster smile Pyrrha? No she wouldn’t, and look at her in the mirror,” Nora giggled as she wrapped her arms around the redhead, with her head poking around the side. 

“Just look at that tummy,” Nora sung, folding her palms on Pyrrha’s uncovered midriff and giving her a little squeeze as she kissed her gorgeous warrior. “I love this tummy Pyrrha, and would totally kiss it every night as I always do.”

“You do kiss it every night, and it always feels so lovely,” Pyrrha whispered, small tears still falling, but they were the last wave. “But just look at my shoulders, and my chest, and my legs. They’re so, unnatural, so broad and heavy and flat,” the redhead huffed, her tears falling a little faster and her whispered, empty and stolen breath, still trembling from her episode. She covered her bare breasts with her hands. “These are barely even real Nora,” she sobbed. 

Nora simply kisses her shoulder and brought her hands over to cover Pyrrha’s as all four cupped her chest. “Nah, they’re real as hell, I mean have you felt them?” Nora joked, not at all meaning to be sexual, just correct and sweet as she always was, like a peach milkshake that Yang always drank and was no doubting downing outside as she lay on the beach in one of the most revealing and flattering bikinis ever made or modelled by a blonde her size of chest.

“They’re not fake honey, nor are these legs.” Nora gave Pyrrha’s beautiful legs a drape of her fingers, slightly tickling them to make the naked redhead laugh her melodic laugh. “Nor are these beautifully curved shoulders.” Nora gave the shoulders another sweet kiss. “And then let’s not forget that stunning face.”

They both looked at the mirror, Pyrrha shocked that she could see her own, female face, and at Nora’s adorable expression and curved eyebrows and smile. The ginger was no longer cupping her chest and nor was Pyrrha herself. Instead they were instinctively holding hands at her waist as they both looked up into each other’s eyes. Emerald looked to seafoam, and both girls smiled a little. 

“I’m sorry Pyrrha, but no matter what happens the girl in that mirror will always be a girl, a woman, and that’s whether she’s in Vale, Mistral or Atlas. Whether she’s in a one piece, two piece of her amazing corset.”

Nora Valkyrie stood on her tiptoes, but even that was not enough to measure up to Pyrrha’s height. She had to leap to plant a small but loving peck on her girlfriend’s cheek before hugging her close again. 

“Oh Nora…”

Pyrrha turned around, forcing the hug over before leaning over and kissing her small ginger so closely and intimately with all her might, such an intimate kiss of love and affection. The nightmare was over and instead of waking up as she thought she might, in her flesh prison of old in her father’s clutches, Pyrrha was instead awoken on vacation in her hometown with her sixteen girlfriends including sweet little Nora. And Pyrrha was so thankful to any and all higher powers who may have heard her prayers of salvation. Nora was that salvation, once again.

They broke off, Nora wiping the last tears from her girlfriend’s emerald eyes. The ginger then looked quickly and grabbed her bag. “Well, we can’t have you going in the ocean naked love, can we?”

Quickly and yet also smoothly and gently Nora dressed her taller and older girlfriend, taking care to kiss her almost all over as she made her look completely stunning. Her legs were wrapped in sun block as well as her beautiful arms and flat tummy. Her back was soaked in the lotion too until Pyrrha stood with her usual beautiful smile adorning her equally elegant and flawlessly complexed face. 

She was no longer naked, nor in a restricting and unfitting one piece that she found horrid for the sake of hiding her body. Nora had managed to lovingly give Pyrrha the confidence and the help to step out in such a two piece, that Ruby, Penny, Weiss, Yang and every other girlfriend she had on the beach and in the ocean, even beautifully tanned Ciel Soleil and clad in rainbow bikini Neon Katt. It was an almost golden crimson, the same colour as her usually adorning cloth skirt that was too strapped around the bikini bottom that covered her. The chest piece was nowhere near as revealing as Yang’s, who was wearing the very same bikini top that Ruby had found her completely irresistible in during the summer break. Pyrrha’s was more covering, but still beautiful enough to make her chest look as naturally gorgeous as it did in her battle corset or her other outfits. 

“Are you okay Pyrrha?” Weiss asked, coming from the table set close to the cubicle, admiring her swimwear very much, and kissing her on the cheek as she joined the redheads, Pyrrha still looking puffy in the face as she headed towards the rest of the entourage. It was so hot and the sun was shining more so than the first light in Vale it was shining over ten times as brightly and almost all but Yang, Ciel and Pyrrha were trying to shield their unaccustomed eyes from the light. And such a perfectly looking day it was; the sand was roasting under the rhythmic pulse of the sun, there wasn’t a single cloud in sight and the ocean was sparkling as the girls and the holidaymakers from all around dashed into the waves, in swimsuits and rubber rings with floats and super soakers.

Pyrrha looked around and breathed a breath of such refreshment, letting the past few minutes just ease out of her. She gently held her arms around herself, getting back in touch with herself and her sensual, spiritual self. She was a woman, and she knew she was. Knew her shoulders were sleek and smooth and one of her best qualities, knew her arms and legs were just as sleek and feminine as well as strong and athletic, knew her tummy was flat and slightly toned although not as much as Yang’s, and she knew that the space between her beautiful thighs was occupied by not a shaft to horrify her, but her remarkable and beautiful folds that had received nothing but compliments and sweet attention in the warm and cold nights from all her girlfriends. 

Ruby ran to Pyrrha and held her close in a hug before Nora and Weiss sat in the sand at Glynda and Blake’s feet. They were reading their novels and already well on their ways to completing both, with Blake’s being a little longer however her elder girlfriend’s pages were far older, and more refined with the binding a little ragged however she had stated it was merely a gift from an old teammate from school all her years ago. 

“Glynda darling,” Pyrrha voiced, laying her beautiful body on the lawn chair next to the professor, who was still regaining her sanity from dealing with the clerk and then the bellhop and then even the manager the day before. The blonde lay down her book in the gap between her chest not needing a bookmark, she was ready with her semblance in case it fell.

She shot Pyrrha a warm and loving smile, removing her sunglasses. “Yes dear?” The executive woman warmly addressed, slightly more cooly than if she was in the classroom; she was trying her best to mellow out and calm down from the trouble with the hotel. 

“Just out of curiosity, just who did give you that book when you were in school?” The redhead asked, untying her cloth shawl skirt and laying it under her rear as she lay on the lawn chair. All her crying had left her more than a little tired and she felt as if a few minutes rest would not go a miss. Weiss rapidly joined her, taking up the space that was left and leaving Nora to entertain Blake as Ruby left to join Coco at the private bar, where a few familiar faces were gathered. 

Weiss felt the sadness still in her taller girlfriend’s bones and cuddled closer up to Pyrrha, kissing the side of her left breast as her hand draped up her smooth and lotioned legs and up to her tummy, which Weiss rubbed dearly, trying to warm the still slightly trembling warrior woman. Pyrrha in turn held her little Weiss so closely, kissing the top of her head and wrapping her arms around her. “Only, you never really speak of your school years or classmates, did something happen?” The redhead followed up as her older partner sipped on her tropical cocktail with about five different fruits adorning it as well as a tiny umbrella which she was lucky that Ruby or Nora hadn’t stolen, even if Ruby was relegated to soda with added cherry. 

Glynda let out a small sigh as she buried her drinking glass into the sand a little. She knew she hadn’t spoken much of her old team or even of her days when she was seventeen, not so long ago that she would not remember, or faintly remember. Glynda Goodwitch was young enough to remember almost every day, even the less than developing ones, having only graduated just over ten years ago. And it wasn’t as if she did not remember Beacon fondly, only one small part of it, which in the end played a rather large part of it. But still she folded a page in her book and set it on the sand to join her cocktail. 

“The book was gifted to me just before graduation, by my closest friend at Beacon save Ozpin and Ironwood--”

“Ironwood went to Beacon?” Nora chimed in, from gently cuddling and even reading with Blake as she mewed slightly and caressed the ginger’s smooth bob of hair, even her feline faunus ears were wiggling under bow. It was the first time Blake had even worn her bow around her girlfriends in a while, and only due to the public presence around them, she still felt as if she would be judged and shamed. Pyrrha had told her several dozen times that Mistral held monogamy and species about as scared as they did chastity and abstinence. 

The elder blonde let out a hum to her small and sugary ginger. “We all did, James, myself, Ozpin, even Oobleck and Port, although they had the fortune of being on another team for the four years. Fortunate for us, that is, because Winter knows how hard it is to deal with Bart and Peter,” Glynda began to tell, earning enthusiastic smiles from Weiss and Nora as Blake and Pyrrha simply listened intently over the noise of Ciel and Neon battling Emerald and Winter in the water while Velvet, Neo and the Twins were actually building the most grandiose sandcastle imaginable. 

“James and Ozpin were partnered up and I was with our other teammate.” For some reason Glynda did not mention the name or even gender of said teammate but everyone could tell from her inflexion and tone of voice that they best not press that matter. “They gave me this book just before we graduated, as a gift for being their friend, for being so close for four years.” 

Glynda, a frown on her face instead of her usual mouth of indifference or even her smile, only ever gracing her lips for her girls, looked as if she was about to tear up and cry as badly as Pyrrha had done in the cubicle. The girls had never seen Glynda cry, not ever, not even showing the signs of impending tears, she was always so immovable and so impalpable. She was Glynda Goodwitch, Phd, she was their teacher and their girlfriend, their aid and guardian and in many ways one of the rocks of the whole relationship in how she had consoled and still consoled Emerald almost every single night when her night terrors came to murder her sleep. Or how she was always with Pyrrha and Nora with the taller redhead’s dysphoric episodes flared up. She was always the first woman up at the crack of dawn with Winter Schnee; the two always gathering at the window of the townhouse for a serious intimate kisses and touches, always first thing in the morning before Ciel always came to join them and before the shower call.

To see Glynda cry, hardly anyone knew what to do or say. 

“She was killed by a band of rogue huntsmen and huntresses about two years later,” the blonde finished, picking up her cocktail again and sipping it through the straw as she reigned back her tears. That was no matter, for both Blake and Nora were already piling onto and beside her on the lawn chair, holding her close as she melted into their embrace.

Pyrrha sighed a melodic tone and Weiss leaned up to kiss her deeply, hoping she was okay as she rubbed her smooth and flat tummy all the more with such love and affection. They cuddled up, sighing and cooing as Blake and Nora did the same with their teacher and lover, all of them growing a little tired except for Glynda, who had only happily returned to her book. However Pyrrha and Weiss did have to ask one question, having not seen one of their girlfriends in a while. 

“Glynda?” Weiss asked with closed and hazy oceanic eyes. The blonde hummed as she tried to find where her page was. “Where’s Yang?”

The bold and buxom blonde was currently running through the waves, growing slower and slower from the resisting forces from the deep blue, until she gestured to Winter, who planted glyphs on the sea and then up and up. She was building a small staircase of glyphs until Yang was far enough out into the waves and high enough to make a decent cannonball.

“Yang!” Ciel yelled as she quickly swam from under her radical and now mildly crazy girlfriend to find Neon, who was still giddy and enjoying herself in the sun and refreshing water; she never got many chances to move and live around a region as warm and brightly beautiful as Mistral was. The bubbly and hyperactive faunus was already attaining a beautiful tan. 

Ciel quickly hid behind her rainbow coloured girlfriend, clad in her shimmering rainbow bikini and her pastel colours hair that was for once not held in her usual catlike buns, but instead it was flowing down her back and damp from the swimming and watersports she had been doing. Neon was even still clutching her super soaker, her water weapon of choice for trying to soak Winter into submission, only nobody ever beat the specialist when it came to water or ice and competition of any kind; Winter had made such a comeback, Neon’s flesh was almost blistering and would have from the iced water in Winter’s soaker if it were not for the pleasantly warm ocean tide. The Atlesian faunus had never had more fun before, and as Ciel cowered behind her, she mewed in shock.

“Oh my dust, Ciel what’s up?” Neon perked up, completely oblivious as Yang was still running on glyphs and picking up more speed up above. Truly her cannon ball was going to send shockwaves to the feline and the analyst. “Come on, grab your soaker again and help me find Winter, I think she was getting Yangarang on this game, and I just gotta beat Yang at a game,” Neon was rambling and let out a stiff and rushed giggle, almost an inhalation of laughter, “like I always beat Yang at games,” she laughed again, her mind racing at a hundred miles an hour, “I mean you could say I never miss a beat at all, huh Ciel?”

The tanned and smaller girlfriend gave no reply, only held onto Neon for her life; they were standing fairly far out in the ocean, up to about their chests. 

“Ciel? What’s up hon? Why are you looking at the sky?” Neon was almost too oblivious for her own good in that moment in Ciel’s eyes as held her close. 

The rainbow feline looked up only to see Yang run to the last glyph Winter had set up for her and leap from it, almost looking like she was in slow motion to the frantic Neon Katt. She suddenly saw why Ciel was looking so fearful and could only hold her back as tightly as she could, still clutching her super soaker as Yang hit the water. What made her impact on the blue even worse was that Winter, all from the safety of the faint shoreline, had placed a small but effective water glyph right where the fiery blonde in her ball shape was about to land.

“Winter?” Emerald called from the monolithic sandcastle that was still under construction by the twins, Velvet, and the added talents of Neo. The brown bunny in her tightly fitting and alluring one piece was snapping pictures all over for the album her and Coco were no doubt planning on building. “What are you smiling at?” The little gem asked, knowing that when her taller and slightly icy girlfriend had the certain twinkle in her deep, glacier eyes combined with her smile of intent, there were not many that were safe.

This would be her revenge for Neon earlier soaking her blouse before she was ready. The kitten was so eager to get her and her girlfriends wet she hardly waited; both Winter and and Penny regretted ever bringing the super soakers with them.

All that Emerald, Velvet, Neo and the Twins could hear in the distance as they stopped their work on the structure that closely resembled Beacon made entirely out of sand, with the tower roughly taking shape and surprisingly holding, was the faint blonde yell as she dropped from nothing.

“Cannonball!”

Yang’s impact created such an enhanced wave, with the combined explosive force from Winter’s glyph that the shockwave rippled all the way back to poor Neon and her anchoring Ciel, pushing them back all the way to shore in a tidal wave. The pair cried out a little, and held each other close as the water took them, like small and pastel coloured pieces of driftwood, helpless against the result from the fiery blonde’s humorous prank. 

Winter of course was cackling the whole time as she made out the little expressions and faces of her two smaller Atlesian girlfriends, the helpless and scantily dressed souls they were being washed away and heading back towards her, tumbling about in the wave. She had admired Neon’s choice of swimwear, very much like Blake’s and Yang’s in terms of how much of the little kitten it covered but all the girls knew that just like the blonde particularly, Neon very much never cared; she knew she was beautiful and loved especially, and thus thought there was no reason to cover herself in a one piece in front of her sixteen lovers, many of whom were dressed the same. Ciel was a little more reserved in her swimwear, and simply to the fact that her bikini was not made to allure the masses, and just covered more of her chest than Neon’s did hers. The shining analyst had once again selected efficiency and comfort above looks and the two piece adoring her chest and waist was very comforting, hugging her perky chest and thighs warmly, and Winter of course had noticed all day, very much like Neon had been as the trio had been playing in the water. The shorts were even wrapped and waterproof bandage cloth, wrapping around her crotch and the top few inches of her thighs, hugging her warmly and making her feel rather good about herself; little Ciel rather loved the soft texture of it between her legs. 

Both she and Neon washed up on the sand not a few feet from Winter, her stunning, gleaming legs dipping in the salted water and glowing from the silky smoothness as the rest of her looked so beautiful, like some form of mythical ocean creature she looked so enhanced and stunning against the sun. 

The pastel haired feline faunus with the tanned beauty who had landed in her arms, her head on one of Neon’s breasts stirred and looked up directly at the elder Schnee, who was at such an angle she looked like an angel. Her pure white hair was shimmering like fresh snow on a bright day and the water droplets drying on her perfect shoulders and arms and upper bust, even the way her tight and silver body suit clung to her curves, her tummy and her elegant and shapely breasts that took Neon’s eye, it all made the feline almost burst with a wanton desire. 

“Winter? Are you a siren? Or an angel? Or like, a mermaid without the mer? You look so nice in that one piece,” Neon murmured, barely grabbing Winter’s sweet attention. She did however shoot her girlfriend a wink and a blew her a kiss while the tanned analyst finally got up on her.

“She’s not an angel Neon, it’s the way the sun’s hitting her,” Ciel voiced, gently nudging her hyperactive girlfriend but then looking to Winter, and seeing how the smitten kitten was so very mesmerised by her form. “Although Winter your chest is looking absolutely superb this afternoon,” the tanned beauty noted, instantly wanting to retrieve her notebook and pen and take both Neon and Winter into one of the cubicles. Her libido suddenly exploded ten fold as she looked back to her pastel beauty.

Tanned lips met pale, feline angled ones and Ciel leaned down to take Neon in a warm and loving kiss, not the first they had shared thus far that afternoon. Her light blue eyes were deep and mellow and inviting to the green orbs of the faunus below her. They had been together for most of the morning and then rolling into the afternoon, feeling so drawn to each other for some submental reason, and Neon had felt for sure it was the right choice, as all the girls sectioned off to do different things she was so glad that Ciel had decided to join her in the water for her little rivalry with the white haired specialist.

“Hey Ciel, honey?”

Ciel took a breath and let out a hummed sigh of blissful content, slipping down from Neon and laying in the damp and slowly drying and rewetting sand, caught in the endless cycle as the water tide washed under the girls. “Yes Neon?” She asked, holding the kitten closely, her right arm wrapped around the faunus’s slim waistline while her left took Neon’s hand in hers sweetly. It was so heartwarming to see Ciel finally take a well deserved and much needed break from worrying about or organising or initiating the vacation, for they were finally in Mistral, with all the worries of Vale and Beacon and classes and homework or assignments or tests well done and completed, with a whole seven days to enjoy the sun while the snow claimed their home town. The next day would be just as magical as this one, and then all the days after until the second plane would take the seventeen of them flying up and across land mass after land mass until they reached the secluded mountain range of Atlas, with the lodge stocked and ready for yet another seven days of the perfect vacation. 

For Neon, it was charming to see her usually swamped and stressed girlfriend take a break and let her short hair down, in both ways, and she looked completely radiant herself, in her two piece and comforting bikini and bandage bottoms. Neon sultrily thought how good Ciel would look without them on in the cubicle herself.

“I love you Ciel, really, I love you so so much and thank you so so much honey for playing with me against Winter, even if Yangarang did cannonball us,” the pastel faunus riddled off her rapid, machine gun tongue. Ciel had no choice but to giggle to herself, which she almost never did except around something one of her girlfriends would do that she would occasionally find incredibly funny.

She cupped Neon’s face sweetly and kissed her again with such a passionate and deep kissed, Neon’s deep green eyes almost rolled all the way back into her head as Ciel’s warm and zesty tasting lips tantalised the faunus, hitting the sweet spot in her mouth and caressing her so endearingly. She slightly felt the space between her thighs grow a little damp and wet to how well Ciel was kissing her and when the analyst slipped in her even sweeter tongue, Neon’s heart for once missed a beat and leaped into her throat as her folds certainly became damper.

The kiss broke and both were a little out of breath, the pastel rainbow child more so than the tanned student teacher. Yet as blue and green eyes looked at each other, and Ciel and Neon both smiled, they both knew the other wanted the same thing. 

Winter had gone from their location, hitting the waves once again with Yang, although doing very little swimming or water activities of any sort. Instead fingers from both busty women were busy running through bright golden and sparkling white locks as lips interlocked and they looked to be just far out enough that the other hands were under the water, in no doubt in between thighs knowing the pair. Both Neon and Ciel let out a little chuckle as they both thought what Winter and Yang were doing, how much of a good time it must have been and how the rush would feel of doing it in the middle of the ocean with the odd person around.

They both looked back to each other. “I love you too Neon,” Ciel mouthed, kissing her girlfriend sweetly again with a slightly long peck. “Now, if I am not mistaken, the itinerary states we still have about half an hour before we’re meant to hit the town for lunch,” she continued, checking the watch around her ankle, moving it to around her wrist. She was right of course, they had just over half an hour to her estimates and agenda. “Would you by any chance like to spend some time with me in the cubicle? Only, as much as I love your rainbow bikini, I would love to see it on the floor instead.”

Neon nearly gasped, almost choking on her breath at the thought, the thought of Ciel quickly escorting her into the beach bound changing rooms with her notebook and pen in hand with maybe a small bullet and fresh batteries also just in case. Neon felt her thighs become a little wet and not from the salty ocean water, it was the thought of Ciel quickly stripping her naked and still damp with her legs spread and the timer on her watch running, Ciel’s very, very experienced, and if needed rapid fingers pumping into Neon’s folds to extract stifled moans and a glorious climax from her as soon as possible. The thing that was really getting Neon twisted and wound up, making her core burn brightly in a flurry of multicoloured fire like her bikini that she very much wanted off and her pastel coloured hair, was the fact that they would be separated from the outside world by a thin wicker wall and Neon having to stifle her own moans that she new from experience in the bedroom that Ciel could extract from her feline lips so expertly, as if they were her own, or Neon had always become something of clay for her beautifully tanned girlfriend to mold and bend to her own erotic will.

It was one of the single most sultry thoughts Neon Katt had entertained, next to the time where she wanted to pleasure the blonde currently being fucked by Winter in the water with Blake, at the same time and in the middle of the sparring arena locker room when no one was around. In the end all three carried out that exact fantasy. 

She only hoped Ciel was as turned on as she was. 

Neon took a gulp before answering, gently tugging on her bikini bottoms rapidly, her mind still racing at a hundred feet a minute, never missing one of her mental beats as if her life a club anthem. “Gee Ciel, uh hell yeah I want ya to take me in the cubicle and, and, and--”

Ciel stopped her with a kiss, and a rather hard grab of her rear, like the same she had graced Winter and Glynda with two days before; Ciel had rather a small thing for grabbing her girlfriends at the plump rear, not as much as Coco did, but enough for her to let a small smile rip while she was kissing them sweetly. She shushed her girlfriend and took her hand in her own.

“Well, if you want to cum fairly quickly, we best snag the cubicle before somebody else does,” Ciel whispered, her blue eyes deep and slightly darker with her sultry intent and seductive tone; the analyst was a slave to her own kinks and she even loved it. She was to make Neon simply shake after she was done, and she was very much looking forward to it.

Glynda, Pyrrha and Blake, with Nora and Weiss asleep on the former and latter were smiling as they saw Neon drag Ciel from the shoreline, grabbing a bag and then racing into the cubicle to the left of the party. The blonde had no choice but to even chuckle; she knew both of them all too well. She knew that Ciel occasionally, or mostly could not help herself and just felt the immediate urge to make one of her girlfriends cum, having done it plenty of times to both Glynda herself and Winter in the blonde’s back classroom closet in the change over between lessons. Glynda’s own record was somewhere in the two minute mark and was always a sure fire woman to cum gloriously into the analyst’s hand after a long and either stressful or boring lecture. 

Both she and Pyrrha looked at each other as Blake took a sip from Yang’s peach milkshake, deciding it was nice enough to even steal and not even buy her bondmate a replacement, it would hardly be long before the agenda for the day stated lunch would take place, and Blake had suggested that they inspect the high street of stores, shops, outlets and boutiques before deciding on a restaurant anyway.

Much to all the girls’ surprise there had been a very sweet and unexpected message left at the front desk of the hotel for them that very morning, relayed by the concierge to be from a Mrs and Mrs Chóma. They had left a reservation at one of Mistral’s most lavish and expensive, but also delicious restaurants for seventeen women and special instructions for the staff to make up a table large enough to seat all seventeen and to supply enough breadsticks, and wine, with soda for the girl in the red cape for as long as they needed. 

Glynda could still remember the most joyous and giddy she had ever heard Pyrrha as she leaped from the floor yelling, “My Aunts know I’m home!” at the top of her voice in such a tone that still made the blonde professor smile as she flicked through the last page she would that day, placing her bookmark in the middle and closing the tome sealed. 

The beautiful and near naked blonde had left herself off at rather a beautiful and slightly tense moment in her gift.

At that moment the flawless redhead turned her head, just as Blake closed her book for a last few minutes relaxation also, both of them looking at each other and then to Glynda. 

“What exactly is that book called again Glynda?” Both Blake and Pyrrha said in unison, both wondering as the thing was a hardback with no title on the spine, it was simply a black and hardbound tome of fiction and one that no doubt their elder girlfriend was enjoying enough to voluntarily leave off on. She never stopped herself from reading, only if the book was an exceptional read. 

Glynda took a sip of her cocktail in the sand and shuffled a little in her seat so that was laying down and perfectly comfortable for the last leg of their morning as the rest of her beautiful and elegant girlfriends enjoyed themselves in the sun and sand. “Well ladies, it is a retelling, a rather twisted one, of my favourite tale of all time,” she told the faunus and the redhead, smiling a little as her sunglasses covered her eyes.

“And what tale is that?” Blake asked, suddenly so invested in the answer.

“Why, ‘The Wizard of Oz’ of course.”

Coco, the whole morning almost, or at least most of it, had spent her time sat around the beach side bar, courtesy of the hotel, sipping on a menagerie of different cocktails which were all chosen not by her, and not by the adorable and laughing rose as she was sipping on her soda with either added cherry syrup or apple. The drinks were all being ordered and selected for by her old acquaintances and now newfound friends. Dew Gayl, Reese Chloris, Arslan Altan, Gwen Darcy, Octavia Ember, Nebula Violette and May Zedong; all on vacation at the same time and near enough around the same street as the girls in their hotel. 

The shaded heavy gunner knew from a while ago, a shared academy training and social scheme trailed in Coco’s first year at Beacon. As leader she had volunteered that Team CFVY take the program and thus transferred to Mistral, and to Haven Academy for a whole term. Two of their friends were Reese and Arslan of Team ABRN, and Coco was delighted to see them again, having been sending them letters and messages with Velvet since that year, they had all decided the CCT was too mainstream and that letters were more personal and both teams kept all correspondence. 

“So how is old Bolin? Yatsu has always said their little ‘rendezvous’ that one night is the reason the old giant won’t call himself straight,” Coco asked, sipping on a cocktail as Ruby sat on her lap sweetly, simply listening politely and a mostly silent, enjoying how her shaded and bereted girlfriend held her; her small and peachy rear being clasped the entire time, as she held all her girlfriends.

Nebula gave a cute giggle out before covering her mouth with her quaint hand, taking a small drink of her vodka with lime and soda water in her own tall glass with her name in violet calligraphy. Ruby was staring at her hair, how short and yet beautifully free it looked, it was quite elegant as well as the her jawline and handing bikini. The leader of the all female Team NDGO looked however that she could dance with the best huntress and while both little Rubles and confident Coco thought they could take her one on one, there was an air of inversion and mystery about the sleek and almost enthralling woman. She was certainly hiding her true lethality as she drank and grew closer to blissfully tipsy even this close to three in the afternoon.

“Oh that Bolin,” Nebula voiced, still trying to cover her mouth a little. “He has to be one of the gayest people I know Arslan, even more so than us.”

“Neb, trust me, you have not seen gay until you come to Beacon. You think you’re gay? Trust me, there is a guy who I’ve seen with another, a blondie, and they are probably the gayest couple I have seen, I kid you not,” Coco explained, even chuckling to herself as she thought of them. Ruby of course was completely oblivious; in her own mind, she was the gayest human alive, being in a relationship with sixteen other women and only just being old enough to have sex with each and every one of them. Not to mention her love for all of them was completely boundless.

The violet haired team leader took another sip of her drink, giving a rather amused grin and smoky eyed look that made Ruby even smile. “I think our next vacation may need to be to Vale, Arslan honey. If there’s gay we have to be there,” Nebula laughed. Arslan soon followed as well as Coco and Ruby as Dew and May soon joined them, as Reese, Octavia and Gwen remained in a listening stance around the other side of the table.

“Wow, look at that someone says gay and Dew Gayl arrives like that,” the greenly bikini clad woman with extravagant curls in her dirty blonde hair stated, in one of the most animated voices accompanied with hand gesture even Coco had seen. “It’s the name isn’t it babe?” She asked Nebula, kissing her hand as she always did and holding the shy May Zedong close.

Nebula swooned and cupped her own cheek a little cringingly to Coco, who found it either too camp or even arrogant. Either way the whole exchange was hilarious. It was made all the more so by Arslan’s comment as she circled the rim of her glass with her index finger.

“What’s your motto Dew love? ‘More like Dew Gay-Let Me Be Your Girlfriend’? Was that it?” The lioness looking woman asked, jokingly only precisely right. Dew Gayl was simply that gay, she used her own queer sounding name as a motto and occasional pickup line. Hilariously it was what had gotten Nebula to date her in the end, and how she loved everything queer about her partner. “Did you manage to make the reservation darling?” Arslan followed before necking the last of her bacardi. 

Both Dew and the sweet May made a crumpled face, by means of displaying the unfortunate news about an unfortunately sour booking that had fallen through for dinner. Arslan swore under her breath, hastily trying to think about what backup plan she had. 

“Something gone wrong?” Ruby asked, finishing her soda and placing the glass on the bar as she shuffled on Coco’s lap and allowed her to get a better and softer hold on her peachy rear. “If you guys don’t have plans for dinner you can always join us. You’re not here much longer and we’re here for the whole week.”

Coco shared her girlfriend’s idea. “Yeah, you would all be more than welcome and our reservation and meal has pretty much a blank check already paid for, you’re more than welcome,” the heavy gunner extended the offer more firmly, very much wanting the rest of her girlfriend’s to meet the lavish women. 

All of the entourage suddenly perked up. “Are you sure it wouldn’t be too much trouble?” Arslan checked, being the mothering friend to Coco she was, extremely close and extremely caring. 

“Of course not, go get changed, grab some lien and join us for the day, we’re hitting some stores along the trip.”

In the space of five minutes the plan was cemented as all the girls gathered quickly, with both Yang and Neon looking so flushed and heated from their own little spurts of action in the ocean and the cubicle at the hands, literally, of Winter and Ciel respectively. A group of fourteen of the girls would hit the town first to the stores and then the hairdressers, for a small surprise for Blake as Pyrrha, Nora, Ruby, Weiss, May, Gwen and Octavia would go ahead and finalise things at the restaurant as the rest of their girlfriends arrived after their diversion. 

It was to true be an evening to remember as one of the best, as the girls hit the streets of Mistral City, with the evening heat descending upon them.

Breakfast was a quiet affair, that next morning, in the apartment above ‘From Dust Till Dawn’. Roman had been planning on sleeping in his armchair that night, but Jaune convinced him to sleep in the same bed as him and Mercury, to make sure that Cinder and Amber wouldn’t be disturbed on the couch. The half maiden in her green cloak had snuggled up to her other half fairly early in the night. Roman didn’t want to admit it, but even that old, spring ridden, tiny bed was more comfortable than his favorite armchair, maybe it was because of the company, but he hated that a hunger for it was growing in the pit of his stomach, even as he took a shower after leaving it just minutes before.

The ginger took a second to look in the mirror as he heard sizzling from the kitchen. He looked not older, but he looked happier. His eyeliner was on point, his hair was well done, he wasn’t constantly under fire by the military, or by huntsmen. He was a small business owner who came home to--

‘Oum’, he thought, ‘I have a family, don’t I?’

He did indeed, and a family that loved him so very dearly, to the point where they would do anything for him at the drop of his stylish hat collection. Of course, there was no one specific position. No one was the wife, or the husband, no one was the child or the sibling. There was Jaune, Cinder, Mercury, and now they were slowly gaining a new member to their entourage.

Brushing the hair out of his face, he caught view of something that made his skin shiver every time he forced himself to glance at it.

His right eye. Clouded. Unseeing. Blind.

He grimaced as he realized this new girl had no idea about it. How he’d have to see her face as she would stare in horror at it, just like everyone else had when he’d show it to them. Everyone except two people. Jaune, who had said it looked beautiful on him, and that he should display it more often, and the tiny and silent girl with strawberry, chocolate and vanilla hair. 

Neo. 

He felt a tear make a mark down his face at the thought of his former companion. His former friend. When he had been arrested, he waited for someone to save him. Cinder, Neo, anyone, but nobody came. No one until Ozpin. And that’s when his new life had started. Maybe somehow Neo had been arrested too, however that was extremely unlikely, she never be caught, she was an elusive shadow. And there had been rumours of a girl matching her description seen at Beacon by Jaune and Merc. 

Wiping away his tears, Roman Torchwick resumed his routine for the day. A quick shave, some toothbrush upon tooth action, some light hair care. Finally, one of his shirts, which had the word ‘PANTS’ in white letters on black fabric, and some casual, loose, black jeans; monochromatic, but comfortable.

Walking out and into the kitchen, he spied Jaune finishing up breakfast plates for everyone, hearty helpings of eggs, bacon, homefries, and toast on every plate. At the table, Merc wore a tank top that had a repeating design of white rifle bullets on blue, with simple dark navy drawstring booty shorts. Roman could catch the outline of panties under the tight bottom wear, and bra straps peeking out from under the tank top. Cinder and Amber were whispering nonsense to each other, and a few stray words let Roman know that his raven haired girlfriend was simply catching the scarred girl up on what she had missed in media in general during her long, restless sleep.

Jaune, dressed simply in his black hoodie with a rabbit face on it and pajama pants, finished the last plate, and brought them to the table in twos. People dug in a soon as they were served, Amber included. It was a quiet, peaceful affair, and was thankfully so after the tension and stress of the previous day.

Without any of the five noticing, Amber fit nicely into their life. Not slowly, but at a good pace, the seeds of love were grown between all of them.

And Cinder looked happy, and when asked what her plans were for the day, she simply responded, with a large and laughing smile on her face. “Amber’s going to help me cut my hair at last, it needs a change.”


	15. Heat On The Steet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The vacation of a lifetime for the girls continue and they take from the beach to the streets, all converging on the restaurant called 'Olympia'. Blake gets a little cut and the DRAGONZ all adore their food. The day end with some shopping for the future until Winter makes a discovery, or rather, misses a discovery, and a mysterious woman steals something important.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's been so long! My cowriter fucked me and bailed so I'm doing this alone now! Uploads will now hopefully be every two weeks and I'm back! Enjoy!

Foreword by General James Ironwood, Headmaster of Atlas Academy to Headmaster Ozpin of Beacon Academy.

Oz… Are you completely sure this is the correct course of action? It may have been over twelve months and yes, we do have Cinder Fall in custody and on our side, but really going through with Vytal again? After what she was planning?

We know there’s still a bigger threat out there Oz. Me, Glynda, Qrow, even Xiao Long thinks you may be making a mistake here Oz. There is something still out there, something bigger than Cinder Fall, bigger than Adam Taurus and the White Fang, and if you go ahead, and give this benefactor what he wants, if you give the go ahead for another Vytal Tournament, Vale may just fall, and if it does, Atlas, Vacuo and Mistral may just follow, Oz.

Please take my thoughts into consideration. Oz, please don’t make this mistake and put school students in the firing line.

Kampf mit Ehre,

General and Headmaster, James Ironwood.

Winter, Emerald, Glynda and little Ruby were sweetly snuggled on the bed.

Emerald was in the embrace of her Glynda, her hand outwardly intertwined with that of the tall and beautiful tutor with the glittering white hair. Fingers interlocked as Winter held close her red caped teen, still tuckered out over the morning and early afternoon in the blazing sun and the sand. The four of them, all tired and in need of half an hour to an hour of rest before the large, shared meal at the restaurant reserved by Pyrrha’s Aunts. The redhead, as well as Weiss, May, Gwen and Octavia went on ahead to the restaurant, to secure the table and to make it larger to fit twenty four women. And Ruby was already thinking about what she may order as her face was cushioned in Winter’s bust.

She let out a small yawn, and then a content hum as she held her tall partner close. Winter kissed her head, buzzing inside as she always did when one of her smaller girlfriends held her. Ruby always held Winter close, as she was one of the tallest girlfriends and had such an amorous bust. 

“I’m gonna eat so much at dinner, Weiss will have to hold me back from the cookie dough for dessert” Ruby sang almost with a smug grin. She buried her head further into her girlfriend’s chest and hummed again. 

It was already shaping up to be such a good day, and little Ruby Rose was hoping that the small entourage of girlfriends heading down the streets of Mistral City were enjoying the sights, the shops and stores, the weather, the people, and most importantly, each other and themselves. 

“Ruby, honey, how do you even know they’ll have cookie dough on the dessert menu?” Emerald asked in a stir; she had been sleeping for almost half an hour and did not want to leave Glynda’s embrace or Winter’s hand holding for another thirty minutes if not more. The verdant gem was amazed when Pyrrha had elected to go on ahead by taxi to the restaurant with the rest of her girlfriends and friends, as after what had happened in the changing cubicle, Emerald expected her to want to stay at the hotel for the hour or two and rest up, even take a shower or bath, like the gem always did after a night terror, with the beautiful Glynda washing her hair and rubbing the soap and moisturiser into her tensed up back and neck. 

Emerald kissed her partner again on the lips, loving the grape taste from her lips. Glynda always tasted of grape, no matter what accompanying lipstick was on her mouth, just as Ruby always tasted like cookies, as Nora was sugar, as Winter was peppermint and her sister spearmint, as Blake was dark chocolate and Yang was lemon. Penny was peach, and had to be one of the sweetest flavours, all the girls loved it, Ruby one of the most, then Ciel with her sunny aura and pineapple taste. No doubt the two were holding hands with Ciel playing about with Penny’s dress skirt all the way down the streets. 

“I mean, the way Pyr’s on about it the place seems too high brow for plain ol’ cookie dough for dessert,” Em finished, stretching a little as Glynda held her more. 

Ruby gasped, as did Winter although hers was more of a faux inhalation with a chuckle on the end as she heard Ruby’s very reaction. “But… They have to have cookie dough Em! It’s one of life’s most crucial desserts!” The reaperess almost shouted. 

Again did Winter laugh, her beautifully melodic laugh that made Glynda smile with her eyes closed as she continued to rest up. “Well my rose, the place is fairly high class. Maybe they do serve cookie dough but with possibly some oranges, maybe even some strawberries, even some other decorations,” Winter explained, much to Ruby’s own dismay. While she could handle strawberries or oranges in other foods, such as all the chocolate that Blake would buy for herself and Weiss as well as the rest, Ruby’s cookie dough could only ever be on it’s own, or if anything with a single scoop of vanilla ice cream, which reminded her of Weiss and thus she loved it all the more. 

“No!” She pouted. “The cookie dough must be straight and untainted or it will simply not do Winter! And Ruby demands her cookie dough!” Ruby chuckled at her own behaviour. “Either that or the best chocolate brownie with mint chips, that would do.” Ruby’s backup was always the brownie, but with with the mint to offset the heavy and dark texture of just chocolate and fudge, it added a small sharpness and a lighter flavour into the mix that was then amplified by whatever ice cream she chose. 

With the application of mint suddenly on her mind, Ruby turned over in the embrace of her elder girlfriend, shifting the roles as Ruby became the real little spoon and the white haired beauty her bigger spoon. She kisses Emerald, on the lips sweetly and slowly as Winter and Glynda smiled, the blonde shooting her blizzard babe a kiss of her own. The two pairs of girls seemed to magnetise together, with Ruby and Emerald clutching at each other with their hairs mixing on the sheets and their opposing tones of flesh melding quite quaintly, almost like a painting, a pastel on the bed with such defined colours, red, green, blonde and silver white. The four looked so natural as they sank back to sleep, two cuddling two in nought but their casual pajamawear, Ruby wearing the most and her Winter the least; she kisses the back of the rose’s head, then down to her neck and extracting a sweet whince from the little reaper’s lips. 

Sinking into sleep, they hardly felt the hour pass and soon enough Glynda’s scroll was lighting up with a phone call from Ciel with Neon giggling to a new extreme in the background.

“Ciel? What is that noise?” Glynda asked as she heard some laughter, then some cooing and finally some mild screaming and running about. An educated guess would tell the professor that Neon must have made a remark and one of the less bombastic girlfriends had mildly snapped, probably Blake and was currently chasing her around the streets. “What has Neon done Ciel?” The blonde further questioned. 

The tanned analyst was trying to calm herself on the other line. “It’s Blake! You four have to see her!” She yelled down the line, causing both Winter and Emerald to stir in the hotel room, but not Rubes, she could sleep through seemingly anything, even Ragnarok as Nora and Pyrrha had theorised before when it took them almost a half hour to wake her for a dinner date. “Blake’s had her haircut!” Ciel revealed and Glynda’s eyes almost burst.

About An Hour Ago…

“Stop! Look down! Everybody, just see what’s going on all around you!” Nora was singing as she skipped down the street with Neon and Dew in tow with her, all three knowing the lyrics to the song the ginger had started and all three were laughing and smiling as much as their girlfriends behind them. Nebula was simply enthralled by Dew, by how happy she looked and how beautifully the sun was casting the lights of her eyes and the golden threads of her voluminous hair. Of course who could blame even the reserved and almost pompous Nebula Violette for looking at her Dew all over a dozen times as she walked ahead. With Dew in her olive green dress and fishnet under suit, she looked the most beautiful and mesmerising thing her team leader had ever seen; the volume of her golden hair, the thickness of her thighs and rather big rear that was certainly flattered by her dress as well as her curves, love handles with her not entirely flat and therefore beautiful tummy and her of course succulent breasts, where the poseidon chain hung across her chest diagonally. 

Dew Gayl, certain was the gayest person imaginable, and could not even walk down a high street to a restaurant with friends without flaunting herself for Nebula, Arslan and Reese, the latter two trying to distract themselves with polite conversation betwixt Coco, Velvet, Yang and Blake. Seemingly, they were still taken by the sight of Dew’s dancing and skipping, but nowhere near as much as Nebula, who was about ready to call off dinner and take Dew back to the hotel room. 

Nebula was simply just too gay for her team mate, and she loved it. 

“So, Blakey,” Yang turned to her faunus girlfriend after a talk of her motorcycle Bumblebee and the hoverboard with Reese, who was still adamant that her board was far superior, until she saw a picture of Bumblebee on Yang’s scroll. “You, uh, wouldn’t know what happened to my peach shake would ya?” Yang asked with a wink, knowing full well it was the feline and the energetic ginger a few paces further down the street were the two who had indeed had at the blonde dragon’s cold and refreshing beverage at the beach. 

Yang very much liked her peach milkshakes. 

Blake’s eyes shot down to the floor as her mouth frowned and she grew very self conscious indeed, but Yang simply held her hand tighter and more loving, holding onto the feline’s arm with a sly smile. The blonde would never be able to grow mad at any of her sixteen girlfriends, but Blake was even more exceptional, there was no way Yang could feel any negative emotion towards her faunus girl at all, with the exception of perhaps missing her. Still the feline looked almost downright ashamed of herself, of how she and Nora simply demolished the milkshake while cuddling on the lawn chair in the sand as the blonde frollicked about in the water with Winter, both trying to serve Ciel and Neon a lesson each about water mischief. 

In fact, Blake could hardly speak, biting down on her own tongue and not wanting to admit she drank it and loved it and would certainly do it again in a heartbeat. She made an awkward mewing noise, between a purr and a moan in her feline-like demeanor. She was feeling so ashamed and a little humiliated, but still warm as Yang stopped them and looked at her with warm and swimming lilac eyes and full lips as she smiled ever more. With a soft kiss on Blake’s lips Yang set her shivers at ease and the feline divulged the fate of the milkshake. 

“Yeah, me and Nora finished it off while you played with Winter in the ocean,” she began, her mellow eyes swelling just a tad. “I’ll buy you another, Yang. I promise,” Blake squirmed a little, but Yang’s expression softened and mellowed further. She took her bond mate in a warm and holding embrace with a deep kiss as well, her aura passing through her arms and lips and melding, conjoining with the rather heavy and shadowy bubble of the faunus’s. It was an extremely sweet gesture and as they held their hold and kiss, Blake felt all negative emotion and awkwardness wash away, becoming as light as a feather and as light as the sun bathing them from up above. 

“Looks like the dragon’s having a good time,” Arslan the lioness said in passing as she came up behind Coco and Velvet with Reese in tow, the boarder’s hands buried in her sleeveless hoodie and with a stick of orange flavoured gum in her mouth. She blew an orange bubble to compliment her smile and wicked malachite hair, which the Twins thought very lovely. Melanie was already contemplating dying hers to the same colour when they all got to the Atlas lodge. Reese herself was smiling so prominently through the translucent sunkissed colour of her bubblegum bubble. 

It forced smiles back from the shaded gunner, the bunny faunus and even the bold and vaguely dressed lioness. Arslan was always dressed sparingly, and very lavishly in her monkish kimono of sorts, her robes of yellow, red and white and with her roaring mane of hair that had grow to a length longer and more impressive than Yang’s as the girls looked at it. The blonde was even just a tad jealous that someone else had hair more, as she put it, ‘poofy’ than her own. Coco had to say, Arslan was looking good, the sun was catching her in all the right areas and her tanned skin was almost glowing, along with her golden and crisp hair piece. Again she looked over to see the dragon and obsidian haired feline making out in the middle of the street. Oddly enough there was not a single person walking past that stared. Coco thought nothing of it and neither did Arslan, both being veteraned in the people and the culture of Mistral through a few of their trips around the four kingdoms, but Velvet and Reese were wondering why no one was stopping or staring or judging the pair. 

Arslan let out a small chuckle. “Mistral’s a different planet near enough Velv,” she let out as she and Coco linked arms. Again the faunus and Reese were confused and Coco failed to hold back her laughter, pulling her bun closer to her. “Look at those freaking bumblebees right,” Arslan told her girlfriend and Coco’s, as all four of them turned to look at Yang and Blake as they continued to make out in the open. “They’re making out pretty much as we do in the hotel room Reese, and yet there’s no one staring at all, because it’s Mistral,” Arslan divulged, turning around as Yang and Blake finally ceased for breath and continued walking closely together. 

“What do you mean ‘because it’s Mistral’?” Reese asked before blowing another bubble in bright orange. 

The lioness held her closer with a smile and kiss on the cheek. “Because this kingdom is pretty unlike the others,” she further explained as Coco cleaned her aviators while keeping her sensitive eyes tight shut. “It’s like, so free and so unjudging, the opposite of Mantle. Near enough everyone is either queer or had some kind of queer experience. Polyamory is a fairly common thing and so is transgender positivity--”

“Yeah tell that to Pyrrha, she didn’t get any and she grew up here!” Velvet interrupted with a scorned look on her face and a small fire in her whisky eyes. She was too right however, Pyrrha had grown up in Mistral, at the hands of a warden of a father with the fantasy of having a champion son to further his legacy. A daughter would never do as the old Apollo Nikos thought them weak, how ashamed she should have been even now. 

Coco stopped with Velvet and held her close, a silent word to her to calm her down before rejoining Reese and Arslan. They were still shocked to learn that Pyrrha was transgender more than anything. she was always so beautiful and it had been completely unexpected to learn that. They soon became four again and before too long the rest of the group joined them as well, Blake and Yang from the back, still buzzing from their prolonged make out session and Nora, Neon, Dew with Nebula, Penny, Neo and the Twins. 

“Still, my point stands, that Mistral, it’s a kingdom that is so unlike the others. Look around, this place is possibly the queerest city on the planet,” Arslan continued and chuckled, however sealing her lips once Dew Gayl heard her words. 

She sighed a rather dramatic sigh which already started off the team leader who was draped on her arm like a small model on a hot date. “Well, I guess it’s the best thing that I’m here right?” Dew asked sarcastically, already knowing the answer. 

Yang shot her a look, a cocked eyebrow and a puzzled smile. “You really think you’re the gayest girl here? When you only have like six girlfriends and we all have sixteen, I mean have you seen some of us honey?” The blonde mildly challenged as they all crossed into the real high street with stores and shops for blocks as well as diners and other services. Neon’s eye caught the sight of an adult store and thought for a split second of telling the other girls or just making a detour there herself with Neo and the Twins, but decided against it. However Yang saw it too and shot Neon a wink as if to say they would indeed check it out later. 

What the blonde saw next was something that certainly did give her an idea the second she read the sign. It was a storefront with an open door and a rather rustic look, like something out of the swinging sixties and a fairly washed pink colouring to it.

It was a salon, and Yang looked right to Blake. 

“Oh Blakey….” The blonde teased as she skipped forward and stopped the group right in front of the salon. “You’ve been saying for a while that you want a change in look,” she smiled as Blake and the rest of the girls realised what store it was. While they all gasped and smiled, Velvet and Penny excited for what would happen next, Blake bitterly sighed. 

“Do we really have enough time?” She asked, her eyes dropping and her brow furrowing. Yang replied positively, making the faunus try something else. “But they’ll hurt my ears by accident,” she squeaked. Another solution came from Yang’s mouth as she pulled out her wallet and slipped two notes of ten lien for the cut. Again did Blake sigh as they went inside, of course she would have it done, but she was a little miffed and not looking forward to everyone to go a little wild over how she would look, especially since she wanted her hair cut short, a little too short. 

It took between twenty and twenty five minutes to see real progress on Blake’s hair, and she was almost tearing up the entire time as she saw the black strands fall from her head to the ground, her thick matte black hair being shed and cut and styled until it would be but a simple bob ending just halfway down her neck. Neon had made a comment that it was the ‘bisexual bob’ and almost all of them had laughed, even Blake herself, seeing the joke. Still she felt a little disheartened as she felt and saw her hair shorten in the mirror, that was until Yang took her hand and kissed her cheek while the stylist cleaned her scissors and readied for another round of fashioning the faunus’s hair into something magical.

“Hey Blakey,” Yang whispered and Blake turned, looking so discouraged and a little naked as her hair was mostly on the floor. “I think you’re looking mighty fine with the new style,” she complimented, more whispering and with a wink at the end. 

Neon soon joined them. “Yeah you look just so so sooooo cute with the short cut girl! I mean you should get it dyed too! Maybe some lighter blue streaks or even just a darker shade of black! You’d look sooooo seductive honey,” the rapid feline faunus blurted out all at once with a closed eyed smile to finish with her tongue sticking out just a little. “Nyah!” She peeped and then went back to waiting. Blake had to laugh, finding it funny suddenly, as she thought about it, that she was so subtle in her feline ways and tells where as Neon always embraced them and flowed with them, in fact they were always part why Blake and the rest of the girls loved her so much. It was how she loved salmon and catnip, how she always talked too fast and yet so lovely, and how if there was any yarn in the house at all, there would be an all out conquest and crusade for it with Neon versus Blake for the possession of it. The victor was always Glynda’s special shelf, where she stored all confiscate in the house. 

They all tried their hand at making Blake see that both she and her hair were looking equally beautiful with a shorter length. Yang was by her side for the rest of the cut, as if it were some kind of medical procedure or the faunus was in labour with child. 

That made Yang think for a slight second, she would love kids one day, and she knew most of her girlfriends had thought about it. But it was a thought for another time, very far in the future for all of them. But Yang’s mind wandered again, not to children, as she was in a salon in the middle of Mistral Central City far from home and with her girlfriends and new friends, Yang began to think backwards.

She thought of a tall and shadowy woman that her Uncle Qrow showed her one day from a withered photograph, a woman that looked almost exactly like her, in the structure and complexion of her face and almost the style of her hair. Her hair. It was a black fire that stemmed from her head down her back, and Yang remembered as she had stared into the paper eyes of her birth mother, that she would one day find her, but that too was far far and far still in the future. In fact Yang had rationalised that when the day came that she would find Raven Branwen, she would simply find an unmarked grave, and that would be the only legacy the woman would leave for her daughter.

It hardly mattered to Yang however, really, when she seriously gave it rational and logical thought. She had Ruby, her darling sister, and she had Blake, her bondmate, and Weiss, Winter, Emerald, Neo, The Twins, Penny, Ciel, Coco and Velvet, Pyrrha and Nora, Glynda and Neon. She had her family, and Raven was not a part of it. And that was okay, as it was all Yang had ever known. 

Which was what always made her want to know more. It was human nature and certainly Yang’s nature. 

To snap herself out of thought, Yang pressed her lips to Blake’s cheek, only the faunus turned her head, and lips instead collided with lips in a burst of warm and surprised love. Blake chuckled as she pulled away and got back to having her thick locks trimmed and cut. 

“Ya know ya look gorgeous right Blakey? Like really already I can see how this cut suits you so well!” Yang cheered, holding onto her lover’s hand as the stylist was beginning to finalise the style and just touch up the top and the tips so the new bob looked natural and beautiful. The stylist had been smiling the entire time she had been cutting her client’s hair, seeing it was so nice to see another polyamorous set of young women in her store. 

After a quick washing, and some fiddling that Blake really didn’t like as it involved fingers that did not belong to her mates and even scissors close to her petite and sensitive ears, it was done, and Blake had officially made the transition from ‘hair blowing in the wind’ queer to ‘short and sensual bisexual bob’ and Neon was positively screaming at how her fellow faunus looked with such short hair. Yang was right beside the onyx haired feline as well was Nora and Ciel and Penny too, the gingers unable to help but run their fingers through the bob and almost shiver with delight as they felt the soft and beautiful texture. 

The tanned analyst was already dialing Glynda’s scroll from hers and telling her all about it as Blake warmed to the beautiful look, all she needed was a long and dark dress and she would feel the most comfortable she ever could; she had decided that if she bought anything on the trip it would be a black dress longer and more flattering than the one she had already. In fact, Blake was smiling the entire way down the rest of the streets and blocks and boulevards all the way to the restaurant.

It was Arslan who saw the front of it, and the name of the restaurant, and almost imploded in on herself as she saw it. The lioness did not think it was possible that she would ever eat there. It really was one of, if not the most respected and high brow dining establishments in the whole of the kingdom let alone Mistral Central City. 

“How the hell did you girls get a reservation for Olympia?” The lioness blurted out, allowing Yang, Blake, Penny, Neo and much of the others to carry on into the restaurant to rendezvous with Pyrrha, Weiss, May, Gwen and Octavia, while Coco stood waiting as Arslan gawked at the lights and illustrious front of the restaurant. 

The still shaded gunner with here beret still donning her head was smiling her almost obnoxious smile toward the leader of Team ABRN as the lioness continued to look in awe at the amazing restaurant. “Well, Pyrrha’s Aunts hooked us up, and when I say they hooked us up, I mean they hooked us up Arslan honey,” Coco bragged a little, continuing to walk onward and into the restaurant.

It was lavish indeed, even more than Coco would comprehend as she was guided to their table by the doorman, who was clad in a white tuxedo with buttons that looked as if they were made of actual gold.

“I want one,” Reese lulled to Nebula as the four girls not already seated huddled together to be guided by those with the reservation. 

Nebula smiled and even chuckled with a closed mouth and smile before giving her tomboy Reese a soft peck on the lips and holding her cheeks. “No darling, no…” Neb settled with a palm on Reese’s blushing cheek as she pulled her hood up and instantly had it pulled back down by the beautiful Dew Gayl.

“Reese honey, you can’t have your hood up in here, this place will have you pay for it,” Dew after she pulled back the verdant girl’s hood and have her a petite peck on her cheek. She was so compassionate and cute with the more shy of her girlfriends; Reese, Gwen and May, and the latter was the shyest of them all, Reese was simply reserved cooly from her tomboyish attire and attitude that made her appear and act male a lot of the time. None of them minded however, they all loved her the same as the rest. 

All of the girls were seated just as Winter, Ruby, Emerald and Glynda arrived, all looking lovely as usual and Ruby simply lighting up like a firework as soon as she saw the new state of her faunus girlfriend’s short hair. The little rose shot across the room in a snap of her semblance, leaving a small trail of petals behind as she thundered into Blake’s embrace and kisses, while Winter sat next to Yang and kisses her perhaps a little too passionately. But she knew that again, they were in Mistral and if anything it was encouraged. It felt so free, considering Winter was born and had been confined to the Atlas system of living for all her twenty two years of life. If it were not for a small and adorable young woman in the academy, that Sturm Schnee just so happened to effectively own, whose name Winter was having trouble remembering, she knew it was an herb of sorts, she would have never have even experimented as a teen. 

Still she loved suddenly taking one of her girlfriends in a deep and passionate kiss surrounded with embrace, and Yang was always among the best because she was only startled for a split second, and then joined in, wholeheartedly too with no stalling. Of course Weiss, Penny, Ruby and Blake were amazing to startle, but it took them a while to come back from such shock. They still hadn’t learned when to expect as Ciel or Glynda had. Of course the cornish haired professor had the luxury of engaging in such tongue covered practices upon waking every morning. 

Yang let out a hum as her older, beautiful and sleek girlfriend ceased the kiss and pulled back, still tasting the lemon mixed with peach milkshake by licking her own lips and smiling at such a succulent and delicious fusion of sweet flavour. “Someone’s having a good time huh babe?” The blonde grinned, even cackling a little under her stolen and reclaimed breath. The ice blue eyes she was staring at were simply elegant. 

Winter gave her own lips a soft pop after licking them clean. “You taste amazing Yang, I’ll have what you’re having,” she winked with another blown kiss before taking her seat next to Weiss, who was at this time simply bereft of breath as she had been giggling too much for herself to handle at that moment. Her taller sister gave her a confused looked however she was still grinning. “What is it?”

“You!” Weiss laughed trying to water down her chuckles before the hiccups claimed her lungs. “You’re so different now! Since you left Atlas and came to live with us you’re just so relaxed and improper! It’s beautiful to see!” Weiss did coo, still drinking to wash down her caught breaths. She was absolutely right however, Winter had mellowed out and changed more than most of the seventeen women. She had stopped being so prim and ruthless and cold and a pawn of her father, dropped the facade and act and simply learned to be herself again, not the illustrious ‘Technical Specialist Winter Schnee of the Atlas Military’ and she was happier for it. Anyone with a single sense could tell that from a mile away. But still was she a little worried inside. 

Winter knew only that her father would still be furious, but not that she or Weiss for that matter were openly queer and so much so, they were not only dating fifteen other women, but also each other. Winter knew if their father found out, there would a day of judgement vastly approaching, and they would be the first to feel the uncontrollable and inevitable wrath of CEO Sturm Schnee, who had every one of his twenty fingers and toes in every financial, economic and militant pie in Atlas. In many ways, Sturm was the king of that kingdom.

But what Winter, Weiss and the others did not know, and wouldn’t know, was that Sturm knew everything, up until one night ago, when his private investigator was thrown from a rooftop by a woman in white mask.

It was only when the plates of food reached their table that Winter finally recalled. “Oh! I remember now!” She almost yelled as one of the smartly dressed waiters placed a spotless pallette of grilled chicken before her with added greens, steamed too and some beautiful watercress. It looked sublime and Ruby was really licking her lips as she was still waiting for her spaghetti and meatballs to arrive. 

“We come all the way to Mistral and to this, one of the most beautiful and established restaurants in the world, and you order the same thing you order every time we go on a date back in Vale?” Weiss has groveled when the little rose had made her order and slurped half her soda in one suckle on the straw. 

“Gah! Come on meatballs I’m hungry over here!” Ruby barked like Zwei, as he no doubt was doing over in Patch, with his true owner cooking for him every night. She looked over to Weiss, seeing her tuck into her lobster, then Yang with her steak, that Coco had also ordered. Neon and Blake had ordered a combined platter of three tunas with all different seasonings. Velvet was sated with a small vegetable dish but was more excited about the desert where she would devour a fresh slice of carrot cake. The girls had expected Emerald to take her usual pompous road, but she had infact ordered a simple duck dish, while Nebula and Dew were both feasting on quail and venison respectively, but only small sizes. Reese was dining on a delicious looking platter of surf and turf while Gwen and Octavia were sharing a barley with toasted breads spread about on a bed of greens and crab. Neo had her platter for fried shrimp and some steamed scallops that looked simply delicious to all, including the Twins with their own serving of seafood risotto; after all they were at the coast of the sunniest city in the world. 

Weiss tucked into her lobster and relished at the taste, at how amazing and perfectly cooked it was. “You remember what dear sister?” She asked, prompting most others to stop their small bouts of eating. Not Ruby however, as her own spaghetti and meatballs arrived and she began her feast before anyone dared to stop her. Only when Weiss and Winter spoke again did she at least slow down her all out assault on the beautifully cooked and prepared meal. It was so delicious. 

“I remember the woman I first fell in love with and dated in Atlas Academy!” Winter chippered with a grin of glee as she reminisced about the fair lady from a few years ago. She said fell in love with, but Winter could not positively say it was love, for it was not the same as she felt for all sixteen of her precious girlfriends around the table. “Her name was Saffron Traynor, and she was a lovely woman.”

“Was?” Emerald asked, expecting another tragic tale like the one Glynda had shared with her a few times, each time with the blonde professor shining more and more light on the remarkable woman. The gem was hoping a woman with such a pleasant name had not met her end. 

The blizzard haired woman took another bite into her meal along with the others as Ruby slurped down the last of her bottled soda and asked for another one, and as Glynda took a heavy sip into her glass of red wine. “Well, I haven’t seen her in, Oum knows how many years it’s been, too many. We had quite the thing when I was still in the academy and little Weiss was in only high school,” she cooed before gently and softly stroking her sister’s thigh under the table, forcing the heiress to almost choke. She contained it and swallowed as her elder sister short her wink and continued to eat. 

“We were together, in secret of course for almost nine months, and she and I were even talking about possibly heading to Vacuo for a year with the exchange program that Atlas had at the time, it’s gone now,” Winter carried on, all as she took fork after fork of her dish and sipped at her white wine spritzer. “But of course Father has his vulture talons deep, not as deep as he does now, but deep into the Academy as well as the Military and she was disgraced, thrown out, and I think she even moved away from Atlas itself. I have not heard from her since,” she finished, sipping again, but suddenly not touching her platter. 

Ruby, who was sat next to her, leaned into the taller and sophisticated woman, giving her a little bear hug as Weiss held onto her sister’s arm. Both of them tried dearly to console her and prevent her from crying. 

“What if she moved here? Like what if she’s in Mistral right now and you just haven’t seen her?” Ruby asked a little foolishly; the odds of Winter’s old girlfriend moving to the opposing kingdom as Mantle, and still being there just as she and her sixteen girlfriends were there on vacation, were astronomical, and yet Winter gave it a split second thought before putting it to bed in her mind and took another chunk from her grilled chicken. 

She kissed her dear little sister and gave her rose a slight squeeze before her own peck on her head and too another sip of wine. “The odds… There’s no way, and it’s fine nonetheless, I put Saffron to bed years ago, I should have stopped him,” she trailed off, looking down into the watercress and losing more and more of her appetite the longer she stared. “No, she’s happy I can feel it, and so am I, you said it yourself Weiss. I’m better than I have been in years.”

Glynda and Coco both raised their glasses. “Aye!” They both sounded from across the table, prompting Ciel, Arslan, Nebula, Pyrrha and Blake to all raise their glasses, followed by the rest, even Ruby as her waiter brought her another bottle of soda. She tipped in her straw and held it up with the rest of the table bar Winter.

“To being better than before?” Glynda suggested, suddenly seeing the change in everyone, how they had all altered, even herself. How Ruby had become more dependant but also guarding of all her girls, and how Weiss had learned to open and love more than herself, how she had dashed her name and lost all care for it as her sister had. How Blake Belladonna had stepped out of the shadows completely and set her roots down, in her life, in Yang and in everyone else, and how Yang had actually found something to fight for, everyone else and their love. How Winter had become a person, and the person she was hoping to be when she was younger, how Penny was actually real, and how Neon was no longer alone and deprived of affection. There was so much else, they were all very different people and while Blake’s haircut seemed to be the first physical change to come, Glynda could sense so much more change to come. 

And that change came about two hours later, as they all were walking down another street back towards the beach for the nightly entertainment, although the whispers among them all affirmed that the only entertainment that night would involve Yang and Winter’s case they had brought. It was going to get very warm in the hotel room, and they were all considering themselves lucky it was the suite. 

But nonetheless Ruby, Weiss and Yang were all glued to the window of a clothing store that fashioned a range of different outfits and clothing. From hunting attire to formalwear they could see inside that there was a menagerie of different colours, materials and styles. They were mesmerised without even stepping inside. 

The little rose had spotted a piece she simply had to own faster than she could pull out the lien to buy it. It was an outfit much like her own simplistic hunting attire, only it looked more casual, more light, not the all black ensemble she had donned so much it was beginning to die before her. It had white, or rather a parchment coloured blouse to it with a much better and more attractive looking corset to it with straps covering it and red and black mixed in with the creamish shirt. Ruby tugged on the hem of her flannel shirt and pulled at her skinny jeans. She wanted it, really wanted it, it was perfect for her in every way and she would do anything to add her cloak to it and complete the ensemble. If the dragon girls were correct, and Vytal was to happen in the spring, then Ruby knew she would need a much more effective, sleeker and more elegant outfit, one that matched the change and one that matched her grown body and mind, she was seventeen after all. 

In the other window, Weiss was not however looking at an alternate hunting outfit. No instead she was ogling over a beauteous and sparkling dress of silver, white, and night time blue that she thought would go with her hair beyond perfectly. The way it was already shimmering when she moved her head and the sun caught the dress, it captivated her and little Miss Schnee knew she would simply have to own it, own it for the rest of the vacation in Mistral and for the follow up trip back to the mountains she loved so much in Mantle. She knew she would need it going back to Beacon too, also thinking about Vytal and if she was not mistaken, the ensuing dance that would follow for the festival all throughout the spring as the tournament drew closer, then would she make the appropriate changes and alterations to her normal combat dress when the competition stiffened. 

In secret Weiss was already hoping that Team RWBY would be facing either Team NDGO or Team ABRN in their opening round, and that the team Emerald would lead no doubt, would shatter Team CRDL. Still, she wanted the dress, and if it turned out that her team would duke it would with Mr. Winchester’s team, she would elect to kick his behind in such a dress, no matter the difficulty. 

What Yang saw was strange, for it was not yellow or brown or any of her usual colours, and, as Blake took a closer inspection of what her bond mate was looking at, while Winter checked Weiss’s dress and Ciel and Penny saw the corset Ruby wanted, Blake could see that what Yang was looking at and cooing over, was a long trench coat of indigo, white and with golden accents. It draped over a plain black top with a serrated chest that looked to be a window to the upper bust but made of lots of smaller ones, then sleek purple leather pants that only covered the thigh really, before sinking into thigh high boots that Blake almost squeaked at. She was already in love with it and Yang could tell by the way she enclosed in on the glass pane preventing the desperate woman from touching it. 

Blake looked quickly back to Yang. “Yang, I need it. I need it now Yang!” The faunus chirped and her blonde girlfriend smiled, walking right into the store front. 

“Well come on then all of ya! Let’s get changing!” Yang called and they all followed into the smallish store for a good round of trying new styles and updating all their wardrobes. Shopping did enthrall all of them really, and Ciel was only wondering what Dew and Nebula would have been like if they had seen the look on Blake’s adorable face as she was handed the boots and trench coat. She fell in love with her own outfit. 

All stepped in, except for Winter, who dashed across the street to a tavern for a glass of water rapidly, not wanting to miss a second. 

She sat quickly on the stool at the bar and called for one of the three bartenders, all of them looking exotic and pleasant as the bar was just about to ride in a wave of life as the night rolled in on an ocean gust. They saw her quickly and by the look of her, with the sweat already on her brow, knew she just wanted some water for the moment, then maybe she would grab a beer, but not likely. 

“I take it you’re not local then?” A raven haired woman in a casual red dress said to Winter as she swiveled around in her stool to look at her. 

As soon as Winter made eye contact, she felt her brain take a blast of deja vu to her frontal lobe as the woman looked very, and oddly familiar to the white haired Schnee. The woman’s hair may have been jet black with a slight tinge of the same crimson as her dress, and her eyes may have been as red as blood, but the longer Winter looked at the woman’s face, the more she saw someone she thought she knew. 

But Winter shook her head and drank the water quickly, eager to get back. 

“No, from Vale, visiting with my girlfriends, I should get back to them,” she rushed and ran quickly out of the bar and across the street into the boutique where her partners were loving their holiday. 

The woman turned her attention to the glass Winter had left on the bar and took it in her hands, pressing a small slice of plastic film against the glass and lifting Winter’s imprinted fingerprint from the glass, then some of her lip mark from the rim, all while the mysterious woman was almost smiling. She carefully folded the film into her handheld case of foundation after a brief application of it to her smooth cheeks. Winter was correct, she had recognised the face of the random, or so she thought random, stranger at the bar, her face was similar to one that the white haired tutor knew all to well. 

The face of the woman who had stolen Winter’s fingertips and lip marks was about thirty years younger than what one would expect, and remarkably the same as Yang Xiao Long’s, only with blood red eyes and slightly crimson hair even darker than Ruby’s. 

“Oh don’t worry, I know exactly who you are Winter Schnee. I know your daddy, and I also know that you’re dating my daughter,” the woman muttered to herself as she left her seat and walked out of the bar towards the beach front, a briefcase in hand and a victorious strut on her. “My daughter Yang Xiao Long,” she said, and before anything else, upon a gust of wind she had transformed into an actual raven, clothed and case and all, and she flew away, high into the air of the deserted street, right before the night came and city came alive. 

But Raven Branwen had other places to be, far away from Mistral Central City.


	16. Private Wars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The girls wake up from a night of lovemaking to breakfast and the confirmation that Ozpin as indeed called for the start of the Vytal Festival to commence at the turn of the season. While the girls begin to organise their entries, Winter mulls over the chance meeting with the woman at the bar the night before, even trying to deduce who it was. Meanwhile, Raven travels to Atlas to confront Sturm Schnee about his intentions with his an her daughters and takes on a little more than she was bargaining for. And Cinder finally has a night's a rest with dear Amber...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapter name is stated in the chapter by Mr Schnee, however it is still a song name. Private Wars is the main song featured from A-RISE in the anime Love Live and is available in a full version

Breakfast was slow, mediocre and an all around strange thing. Compared to the events of the night before, and how Pyrrha and Glynda needed to front another hundred lien for all the linen and other things, breakfast was an unnervingly normal affair.

Several pairs of legs were not fully functional and even Nora, Penny, Ruby and Emerald were still in bed recovering. Blake and Yang could help but smile and blush over the state of the little rose. It took a severe amount of persuasion on Yang and over parts to severe the onyx haired Faunus from the sleeping riding hood, she felt too bonded when she woke. But Ruby was simply too exhausted after the night of lovemaking with the dearest Blake to get up so early. 

Neo was on the other arm of the dragon, as Blake took her first and right, the ice cream lady feeling more loved up than she had ever been with Roman. It was rather strange and extraordinary to behold, especially for Weiss, who was joking with Ciel and Neon, and Blake, as since the first time Neo and Yang had met, the former had almost murdered the latter. But now the dragon and the small ice cream lady were practically inseparable, with Neo just having such a fondness of the blonde that could not rip her from Yang’s surroundings, ever since the night the blonde had learnt her name with Pyrrha. 

Said redhead was in front her hand and fingers wrapped in those of Glynda’s and holding her arm close with a bright and bubbly smile on her face. Pyrrha was actually having a far better morning than she had the previous day; no constricting one piece sickly constricting her parts and making her see visions of the horrific past and someone she wasn’t and would never be again. She felt free and happy that morning, with Glynda on her arm and the rest of her girlfriends close by and laughing as they all walked down the lavish corridors and hallways to the breakfast hall, not wanting to take the elevator, they could simply kiss and smooch along the way; as Blake and Yang had been displaying for almost the entire way there. 

Then again, all the others were kissing too, just as they always did any chance they got when the air was as peaceful as it ever was. 

But Winter was mildly troubled at the back of her mind, even surrounded by all her lovers on such a beautiful morn. She was mulling over the previous evening and the woman she had encountered in the bar when he had left them to quench her thirst just before they had shopped at the small boutique. The raven hair, the blood red eyes, the complexion and arrangement of her face. Winter had seen that woman somewhere before, or something like her, but he could simply not connect the dots and figure it out. And it was slightly beginning to annoy her as they all sat down for breakfast.

The two gingers and the two gems reported down just as Yang was dipping her soldiers of toast into an egg, with Neo wafting down her waffles with Pyrrha, who also loved that breakfast food. Nora gave the little ice cream lady her usual glare of morning competition when she saw the waffles laid out before her and the taller redhead, and pancakes at her own plate with a small slice of butter atop the stack and syrup ready. Pyrrha herself gave Nora a joking look of flames as she was also on the side of the waffle, and had been the entire time, thus she teased her smaller ginger more than she had at home. Glynda had a fry up, complete with eggs, the best bacon, beans and the rest, as did most of the others, as the younger girls simply settled with cereals in just an erratic variety. 

By the time Ruby had joined them, she saw the epic table filled with different cereals. She exploded into a flourish of petals and within seconds, two bowls of chocolate cookie flakes were downed. Despite this, everyone was back to holding hands and gently eating their breakfast. A content air of bliss settled over the table, that once again had to be set up to seat all seventeen of them. Yet Winter was still thinking of her small encounter with the familiar looking woman in the bar, all while Glynda read the paper, sipped her orange juice and scooped up fork after fork of her fry up.

“So!” Neon piped up, as she cut into her feline shaped pancake stack that Coco had ordered for her, complete with chocolate chips that Blake was stealing from inside the pancakes whenever the other feline faunus looked away to kiss Ciel or play with Penny as she sipped her OJ. The ginger had elected to switch off her hunger algorithm due to the massive meal she had the previous evening, and the other they were to have later in the day.

Pyrrha’s Aunts were treating them all to a day out and then a small musical performance at a theater in the center of the city. A small performance that they had assured the taller redhead that the bombastic blonde would enjoy. Pyrrha had fully informed her caretakers about all her girlfriends, and the hardest person to please with a musical would be Yang, she hated them. 

Only she would not hate the one they were going to see, according to the Aunts. 

“What are we doing today honeys? Because Neon is ra-rar-raring to go and enjoy the second day of our vacaaaation!!” Neon yelled at the top of her lungs, in a flurry of her arms before scoffing more and more of her kitty pancakes.. She was full of energy already and wanted to take full advantage of the lack of classes, the lack of Team CRDL, and the lack of Beacon as a whole. Neon was loving the freedom for one.

Nora quickly swallowed a large gulp of her own pancakes, subsiding her stare down with Neo as the ice cream lady snatched the syrup and drizzled her waffles with it, followed by some small berries and more chocolate source. Hers looked more like a dessert than a breakfast, but Neo herself had extremely strange tastes in foods, not to mention her small habit of taking some into the shower with her and eating it there. And then the occasional minor stuffing on a lazy day. 

“I second!” Nora roared, standing up and lifting her fork into the air like a sword, as if she were one of the knights of a round table; although the table was indeed round. “We need to do something before we go and meet Pyrrha’s Aunts. We can’t laze in the hotel room until three,” she rationalised, and as she did, so did the others, realising what kind of state the hotel room was in after their large tumble in the night.

Glynda, Winter and Pyrrha all smiled as the smaller girls began to get a little giddy. Blake simply smiled and draped herself onto Yang’s shoulder, purring a little as all her breakfast settled, the pair of them cared little for what they all did until three. Yang herself was content to head back to the beach and lay with Blake and a few other of her girlfriends for the rest of the day. The night before had left her bereft and undesiring to attempt anything that required a large amount of energy, but knowing Nora and Neon, they probably wanted to go rock climbing or play laser tag, which was a hysterical idea to Yang. She giggled, Blake holding her around her waist.

“Yang? Whatcha laughing at?” Neon asked, seeing that the blonde was looking at her while she chuckled to herself. 

“Nothing,” the dragon edged out as she tried to stop her laughter, failing to do so, until Blake licked her cheek a little catlike and purred into a hug, which soon made her blush enough to stop laughing. “It’s just... please don’t suggest laser tag again, remember last time honey?” Yang countered, and her counter question made Blake’s yellow eyes widen, nearly popping out of her head completely. Neon’s smug look soon disappeared and Velvet laughed, almost choking on her morning ‘Carrot Crunch’. Being a rabbit faunus made her immune to lasers, however the remaining two faunus girlfriends were indeed susceptible to the red lights. 

The rainbow haired faunus shook her head as the rest of the girls aside from Blake let out a small snigger into their plates. “As a matter of fact I wasn’t going to suggest laser tag, because I know Blake doesn’t like it that much,” Neon deflected, as Glynda silently tapped her fork onto the tablecloth, quietly humming a small song to herself as she finished the paper before long.

“Well, we could always discuss what will be waiting for us back at Beacon come the Spring,” the elder blonde suggested. It forced Winter to drop her knife and fork onto her own plate. 

“You aren’t suggesting we compete are you, Glynda dear?” The specialist asked, a little concerned for the younger girls around her. After all, the rules would dictate that neither herself nor Glynda, nor Ciel would be able to enter. If what Winter thought her elder partner had read was true, it would be down to the rest of the girls to enter and fight for their lovers and glory. But it would never be about glory, only fun.

Ruby and Penny were both intrigued by the paper and quickly swiped it for a scan and read. Pyrrha stopped eating with Neo, Coco actually lifted off her sunglasses and squinted, blinded a little by the light intensity. She soon lowered them as Velvet lay on her chest for a cuddle. 

“Looks like Arslan was right!” Ruby peeped. “Ozpin announced Vytal two days ago, it looks like the festival will be about a week long and then the Tournament following the next week, with students from Beacon, Shade, Haven and Atlas all competing for the Vytal Crown,” the hooded reaperess read off the paper as she suckled on her spoon that was still tasting so chocolatey. She could feel her own smile grow a little malicious as she read deeper and deeper into the article, flashes of all the possible fights and bouts soaring through her mind and playing around it in like an action movie. She was enthralled and looked at Yang, Blake and Weiss, who were all still members of her team, and she was their leader. “We have to enter, all of us!” She beamed to the rest of her girls. Emerald for one was clutching her spoon and looking raring to engage already. 

‘I’m sitting on this barstool, talking like a damn fool, got the twelve o’clock news blues. And I’ve given up hope for the afternoon soaps and a bottle of cold brew…’ Glynda was humming and singing to herself in her mind as little Ruby rallied her team and Winter silently slumped to herself on the opposite side of the table. Neither were entirely convinced that entering Vytal was a good idea by any stretch of the imagination. Not that Team RWBY and Team EMNM couldn’t best their way to victory for the seventeen of them, only that the whole idea of Vytal somewhat did not sit correctly with the blonde professor, and as for the white haired specialist, she was still mulling over the gathering shadows around them as of late. 

There was still her father, who had not yet even made as much as a peep after her exodus from Mantle, and who still had the entire Atlesian Military save for one General and Headmaster under his thumb and therefore in his pocket. Sturm also had practically a blank check to himself and the entire might of the Schnee Dust Corp, save for the collective thirty eight percent that was owned collectively by Weiss and Winter, with which to find and ‘collect’ them. Technically, Sturm could even seize Weiss himself due to the fact she was still in school especially as she attended under a Schnee Dust Corp tuition grant. By all rights Weiss should have been living with her girlfriends on borrowed time, only their father had not made a single sound from his lair in the Schnee Manor. 

And then there was of course Cinder Fall, Mercury Black, and Emerald’s boss. Cinder alone was, as the girls believed, gone, away from Vale, nowhere to be seen, and therefore a dangerous loose end that could be doing seemingly anything, although as for Mercury, he was living it up as Jaune’s new partner and studying at Beacon. 

Then as Winter thought more and more about it, the woman she had met the night before simply made her feel terrible, sick to her stomach.

“Yang,” she voiced a little later when they had all elected to simply dress and walk along the beach looking for a small bar. “Do you remember your mother? Your real mother?” Winter asked, somewhat ashamed she was anyway. 

“Yeah, not much but I do remember her. She left when I was pretty young, haven’t seen her since,” the blonde answered, her tone somewhat vacant and absent. 

“Do you remember at all what she looked like?” Winter continued, her fingers interlocking with the blonde’s as Blake held her other arm still, the rest of the girls on ahead or already up in the room. “Not just her clothes but what she actually looked like, her hair colour, eye colour, anything?”

Yang had to think for a moment, stepping back from the now and travelling all the way back to when she was about two or even earlier. Raven was a very very rare component of the young dragon’s life, to the point where the mysterious and absent woman had been ripped of her ‘mother’ title and instead considered a simple birth giver. Summer Rose was Yang’s mother, and she felt even more destroyed almost daily than Ruby that she was dead and never coming back. 

“Well, there’s not much, but as far as I can remember, she had very dark black hair, and I think red eyes, like my uncle Qrow, which explains a lot since they’re twins. But it you want more you’d have to ask him or dad. I mean I only knew her until I was two years old,” Yang griped, feeling the bile in her blood seep through into her words.

There was more than bad blood there, as everyone sensed, but only now did Winter truly see it. 

“How come you’re asking honey?” Yang followed up with, looking more than a little inquisitive. And Winter simply froze. 

‘She had to ask why I wanted to know didn’t she? Now what? I can’t lie to her… Can I?’ Winter thought as they slowed down their walking.

The mask slipped on with ease as it always did; she’d been wearing it for years and this mission was no different to any other the middle aged swordswoman with raven hair and blood red eyes had handed to herself. However, months of single handedly dismantling the White Fang and raiding Schnee Dust Corp warehouses had not really prepared her to take on her new target. Luckily for Raven Branwen, her assault on the Schnee Family Manor was not to be hampered with a blizzard, just a harmlessly light snowfall.

She’d been camped out for a few hours, surveying the entire property while the grand master, Sturm Schnee, worked from inside. She’d found out from months of wiretapping that the man had practically isolated himself inside the confines of his armoured mansion since Winter had fled his country. And it practically was his country, due to him having every one of his twenty fingers and toes in every sector of government and military. With his company’s infinite reach, it should have been considered his military a long time ago. That much was displayed by the plethora of guards patrolling the vast grounds in their parka, the snipers posted on the wall, and the whole host of mecha guards everywhere else. 

Even if she had the semblance of her third year rival at Beacon, to turn seemingly invisible and blend her way to an entrance, she’d still be stopped dead by the security systems that would prevent her entrance. There was seemingly only two possible ways of entrance to the stern looking Raven Branwen as she grew colder and colder. 

Either he would have to take on all the guards at once and alert the entire house to her presence, no doubt baiting Sturm into an airship at the back which she would stow aboard. Or she would have to silently take out every single guard without alerting the rest, and then sneak inside before the man of manor left. 

She was not entirely looking forward to the former option, it would be too erratic and there was certainly too many things that could go wrong in the space of time less than a second. There was no way she could react to everything in time and manage to deflect every round with her blade. 

Raven quickly checked the chambers of dust on her massive sheath. They were rather rapidly running low and she had not been able to snag a steady supply; fighting her way through Grimm everyday and then sacking locations of Schnee underhanded business, and not to mention single handed dismantling the White Fang after Adam’s death, they had all but sapped her dry like an exhausted oasis in a desert of Vacuo. Luckily there was enough to power her cold, black iron blade with lightning powered dust, that would be enough to stun most of the guards and slice them into a fine vapour if she was calculative with her semblance. 

Carefully, the assassin scoped the field she would be playing on once again and calculated all the positions she would need to whip up a portal nearby, and then make another less than a second afterwards. If all went well and Raven wasn’t fatigued by the midway mark she would be able to silence everything and everyone in the courtyard in less than about a minute. That was if she was fast enough and ready enough, one false move or one slip or one misplaced breath and her concentration would slip and she would be found. 

It would take a human guard less than another minute to sound the alarm and a mech could do it wirelessly in a few seconds. That meant they would have to be sliced first and then the human guards before they had a chance to find the scrap left behind in the piling snow. 

She rolled her shoulders, easing up and trying to snap some of the tension in her bones, there was never any use in assaulting anything if one’s body was riddled with stiffness and tension, but the cold was hardly helping. She would probably be locking up all over again before long, if she wasn’t fast enough in her portal work.

Nonetheless, she began.

Raven Branwen snapped her first portal in front of her and then a second right behind a guard close to the gates as he walked. She stepped through and cut him down in an instant, then charged the next, swiftly cutting him down. Next she popped another set of portals to take her onto the wall, quickly dispatching the three patrolling it, then across the way to deal with two mechs close together, all the while following some imaginary beat that she was conjuring in her head to help keep focus, something with groove and rhythm to ensure there was no way she could falter or flatline, and she never. 

Three more again outside the wall fell before they spotted the bodies of their fallen and mutilated comrades in the small layer of snow, and after that she was over, or rather through the wall and into the full courtyard, only to fling herself through another portal up to the roof upon spotting a sniper. ‘He must have been on the other side of the house or on break, damn he even knows I’m here. Fuck my luck’ she cursed in her mind as she snapped her semblance again and ended up right behind him. 

Unfortunately he had seen more and instantly turned around to meet her slash with his rifle. Raven managed to cut clean through it, even shocking his hands but his foot managed to land a blow in her shin, sending her to the knee. A knife was brandished but she was Raven Branwen, and he was a nameless sniper that would remain nameless. As he came to slash at her throat she snapped another portal behind him and then the other node under her, sending her falling though, and her blade through his chest. Then she traversed quickly back down to the courtyard, where a guard had spotted her.

‘Double fuck.’

With a fast response Raven snapped through another portal right in front of the guard onto her and ended him with a swift slash across his chest, killing him quickly, but then came the other two, with stun batons. As she intercepted one of them, cutting through his baton the second got the jump on her and stunned her in the back like an energised blade. The damn thing hurt more than a lot of things, cluing her into the fact that Schnee Tech was not only cost effective, but also downright brutal if it hurt. Turning around the guard that landed the blow quickly met an end when Raven severed his neck rather viciously, hurting her was not an ideal move. And then all too easily was the last guard dispatched until all the men lay in pools of blood and the mecha in several pieces around the house. 

Raven was already slightly bereft, her lungs stung from the baton and her breathing causing her chest a mild pain. But she would not stop, could not stop until she was inside and she’d reached the don, the boss and the master of the property. And that was a fairly long way to go from the ground floor. As she slashed off a guard’s hand and pressed his finger to the identification pad on the side door to the kitchen she took a series of long winded and sharp, precise breaths. 

“Summer. Taiyang. Ruby. Yang.” Raven whispered to herself in her mask in sequence, and then again as the door unlocked and she stood holding the handle and her blade, frozen seemingly. “Summer. Taiyang. Ruby. Yang. Summer. Taiyang. Ruby. Yang.” Again and again she said it before finally realising where she was again. It was surreal. 

But the masked woman stepped inside the kitchen to see it deserted, empty, as if it had been for some time, and then the corridor, and the rooms leading off from it. There was virtually nothing inside one of the rooms, as if it had been stripped of all that was in there, except there was something emitting a certain smell, a scent, that was so prolific in the air, lingering like a dead musk that would refuse to leave. 

Upon closer inspection Raven found a thick, thick layer or dust on the window sill, as if the room had been locked shut for years, and then there was the smell again. It was so prominent, so thick in the air, stuffed in the room over the cycle of its abandonment. Raven closed her eyes to try and imagine the room years ago, stepping her mind backward in time as she soared through the years the room had held in itself. They were many possibilities but Raven had a hunch, a rather large one, that the room she was standing in, a few rooms away from the main entrance hall of the manor, with the grand staircase leading to the floor of work, where no doubt Sturm Schnee lay in his study, mellowing in his finances. 

She was completely sure, after more of the scent that the room she was in was a play room, of a small girl. But it hadn’t been used in years. Raven moved on and into the grand hall. She found him there instead, not in a study or the bedroom or the hall or some other room, he was simply there, with a dozen or so hitmen with rifles littered on the upper balcony aiming into the lower floor, at Raven. He had simply been waiting for her for quite some time really, naturally.

He, Sturm, was rather tall, taller than Winter and about over twice the size of his eighteen year old heiress Weiss. He had his short hair, as white as white could get, whiter than the snow outside. And just like how his daughters had been dressed at Atlas, he was regal, in a white and silver accented suit fit for royalty. Raven supposed that he almost was, in fact if Atlas were to have a monarch he would be the one to claim it, by his own show of force. But the moustache, the hideous slither of hair gathered up on his upper lip made even Raven’s skin crawl as she looked into his deep blue eyes, not glacier like Winter’s and certainly not warm oceanic like little Weiss’s. His were electric blue, a blue that zapped into Raven and forced a shiver out of her. 

Simply by looking into the eyes of Sturm Schnee she could tell how he was the man he was. It was simply all he was made from, he was his own man and every fibre that wove into him was ugly, was vulgar and vile. He would be the only person in the world she would gladly kill that truly deserved it. And that made her a little sad inside. 

“Well there’s hardly any point in the mask now is there? I know your face, who you are, what you’ve been doing to the White Fang over the past few months, and now you know mine Ms Branwen, or is it Xiao Long? I was never sure if you married Tai in the end,” he taunted in his monopolistic tone, bold as brass and acting like he owned the ground beneath her feet, which of course he did. 

Raven obliged as instructed and the mask left her face and fell to the ground with an echoing thud, as if she had tossed it to him atop the marble stairs. That was another insight. The marble stairs, the obsidian railing, the locked room. It was all adding up in her mind as to who exactly she was about to speak to. And knowing her own mind, the words would not be chosen carefully as his always were. Yang was more like her mother than anyone in the world knew, save for Mr Branwen.

While Raven remained silent at her target, her blood was flaring a warm and spitting fire as her heart was violently pounding inside. While her blood red eyes were still as thick as wine and her blood was warm, she was still most likely staring at her own death. There were simply too many guards to count. 

“Why are you here Branwen? What is is that requires you to break into my home and kill my guards? I have done nothing wrong” Sturm pointed as he took a single step to the right, as all his henchmen maintained their stance with rifles cocked and ready, at her. 

“I found your PI, Schnee. Found him Vale spying on my daughters and yours, and their girlfriends, like a creep. Why can’t you just stand them to be happy? Happy without you, no wonder Winter left you--”

“Oh but you’d know all about abandoning people wouldn’t you Branwen? Tell me, how many people have simply left? Four? Five?” Sturm riddled off, hitting the one nerve he knew she had. The painful fact that she had left Yang, her daughter when she was just two years old. “Tell me, how many of them are still alive?” Sturm asked, making her react. 

She clenched her fist over her harsh blade so hard it threatened to break or cut her palm from the strain. In her mind she kept saying their names. ‘Summer. Taiyang. Ruby. Yang. Summer. Taiyang. Ruby. Yang. Summer.’

“So,” Sturm thundered into the hall with the cold and cast iron echo. It was positively Lovecraftian the way the room was set, black obsidian upon white marble and steel accents, not to mention the crafted plaster closer to the ceiling. It must have cost more than Raven had ever made in her life to simply build the manorial horror that there seemed no escape from now. “What is your plan Branwen? Force your way up these steps and stab me in the gut right before all these gentlemen shoot to oblivion?” He asked in a rather demanding tone, knowing full well there was barely any way she could actually kill him from there. 

But of course Raven had a backup, she always did. She had walked right into a trap that she knew would have been set, she have been blasting her way through Schnee Dust Corp warehouses and labs for weeks in the midst of dismantling the White Fang, and this was something she had a classic contingency for. Raven just hoped that this would not be her last time to think of one. 

Again she rolled her shoulders and cracked her neck before channeling all her strength and semblance for one last portal. And Sturm suddenly lost his smile and edge, his face turning to one of ice cold with a ruled look of iron clad authority in his stern eyes. 

“I won’t allow you to hurt my daughters or the ones they love.”

Raven spawned her portal, two in fact, one on the right side of the upper balcony, and another on the left, and from it spewed two Grimm Ursa, ramming into the guards and ripping into them, taking their attention away from her. And then she took her chance to take the king piece and end his game.

She shot forward, and at the same time Sturm formed a glyph right in front of himself, deflecting Raven and sending her back down the stairs and into the front door of the manor. He soon followed, slipping down the stairs and pulling forth a smallish cane from the umbrella stand near it to act as a catalyst. Glyphs usually worked better when the caster had something to channel them through. Winter and Weiss both used their blades as their grandfather and forebears did. 

Before she knew it, Raven was standing in the snow as it began to pick up with the tall and obviously powerful Sturm Schnee coming for her. She quickly got to her feet before she was dead. 

“But that’s not right!” Raven shouted above the volume of the snow coming down harder. “You never could use glyphs! You never even had a semblance Sturm!” She shouted again, unable to believe it. 

He smiled and quickly acted, taking advantage of her disbelief and conjuring up his own portal of glacier blue behind him and before the house, where inside the Ursa tore into his guards. “It’s amazing how far technology and evolution can be propelled under my vision and mind Raven. You and yours are tiny compared to what I can muster!” He raged on as his own glyph portal, looking identical to that of his daughters, formed behind him, allowing the arm of the iconic, massive and very powerful Schnee Knight to pass through, slowly followed by the rest of him. “Now if you still believe that I can be foiled so easily by a huntress who lost her prime twenty years ago, then behold this!” 

The Knight fully emerged from the portal, gigantic, bigger by far than one that could be spat out by Winter and for more powerful than the copy Weiss was only just learning to control. Measuring almost the height of the first two floors of the mansion and wielding a large sword that looked to simply be a giant and sharpened slab of metal, a blade that could take down a Nevermore with one slice of impact, that would smear petals of blood all around. It was a colossus staring right down at the desperate and unmasked Raven as she wondered how she could bring it down. 

She had no choice however, she had to do something as it was to be standing in the way of her and Sturm Schnee. 

Raven charged, fast and loose right at the conjurer, hoping to slip right under the Knight and plough her blade right through the master of manor’s chest as she had done with the guards now all around her. The snow was coming down with a frosty vigor now and as she slide the Knight plunged his blade into the ground, allowing Sturm to retreat back to the doorway and for his pawn to set Raven off balance. However it did not stop her and Raven quickly regained her stature, leaping onto the Knight’s arm as he brought the sword back up. She would slash at his neck and be done with him, scooting right past the Glyph Knight and right into the caster. 

Sturm saw this right away and brought up another glyph to send a frosty bolt right at the crimson assailant, knocking her off the Knight and back into the snow, where the Knight himself threatened to stand on her. She rolled, rolled and flipped in the gripping snow and snapped another portal at her feet and then another right behind the right calf of the colossus. 

Slashing at the back of his anatomical knee Raven knew she had it injured, as it fell to the knee in an artificial pain from where she had cut. Next she turned her attention to Sturm, but the Knight was not spent so easily. With a large swing his blade came at her, right at her midsection to rip her half and end the little bout, with the puppeteer looking angered and annoyed that it had gone on so long and Raven had showed so much resistance. He had known her to put up such a fight, but not against his experimental Glyph Knight; that much was surely beyond even the Raven Branwen that had been demolishing the White Fang and disrupting, sacking, his business practices in Vale. 

Raven took the blast from the Knight on the chin, blocking what she could with her now feeble blade, the red sword shattering into fragments in her hands and leaving her with only a handle as she was taking from her feet and went soaring passed her intended target. It was over. She’d lost.

As Raven Branwen flew passed Sturm Schnee she reached out, seeing his smile under the filthy moustache she tried desperately to reach out and grab him, to either take him with her back into the house or to use him as a source of structure, to soar around him and break his neck in one fluid motion. But Sturm simply smiled and stepped back about hand an inch, away from her fingertips as Raven pathetically few back into the house and into the marble staircase, her spine taking the force and almost breaking it entirely. She was done spent and stunned beyond belief as the final Ursa took down the last of the guards and saw her dazed on the staircase. 

The airship soon landed just inside the courtyard, ready and waiting for the executive Schnee to board and he did all too soon as Raven tried to come to her senses. Boarding, stowing herself on the airship had been her other plan, and now it looked to be the only way out, the last chance to get Sturm and kill him to protect them, even if she had not even a blade but a sharp hilt. She’d still plunge it into his heart and kill him for wanting to seize Winter and Weiss.

Raven knew people like Sturm, the possessive scum of Remnant that would never see their property, not people, leave their side and after all she’d uncovered about his obsession with patriarchy and his line of succession, she knew he would not stop. Once Winter had fled Atlas and Weiss had gone to Beacon instead, he would do anything to get the back into his domain and under his rule. Raven had to protect them, to protect Yang and Ruby and their life, the life that kept them safe, as well as Vale and the world. 

He looked back at her as the smaller craft took off, the smile and electric blue eyes coursing through the gap as the craft left the immediate proximity of the house, with Raven getting to her feet inside.

‘You’re not getting to them Sturm. Not on my life,’ Raven thought, pushing back the immense pain in her back and standing, throwing the broken hilt of her sword into the head of the Ursa and killing it. She had a chance to make the gap, and to make it aboard the craft.

She ran, as fast as she could muster with the fatigue and back pain, her spine wanting to snap inside her. 

“Did your men set all of the charges?” Sturm asked the grunt beside him aboard the airship at the climbed higher and higher with the blizzard on their heels. He truly was a businessman, and one who had been in the game as long as he had, longer than all the rest. Sturm Schnee had been secretly waging his own war on the White Fang for years, all because of his treatment of faunuskind, and they had been trying to kill him for the same amount of time. There was a precise and calculated contingency for every possible outcome.

The Atlas Security Officer nodded while holding his rifle and looked back ahead, while Sturm simply smiled to himself taking the detonator from the soldier beside him, not afraid but rather willing to get his hands stained with his assailant’s blood.

“Private Wars are my business Ms Branwen. You played the game and you lost.”

He flipped the safety off and pressed his cold iron thumb against the trigger button and before anything else could happen the entire estate popped, bursting out into a barrage and plume of flame as the explosion simply ripped through the foundations and scorched the walls, blasting away the brickwork and marble decor. The rooms were gone, the staircases demolished and the windows shattered as the bodies of the men inside were vaporised from the detonation and the fateful Raven was consumed by the flames.

Sturm had destroyed his entire manor simply to kill her, and by the look of the massive plume of flame and smoke that was coming from the ruins, he had certainly accomplished that, and he was smiling as the airship zoomed away, leaving the snow to fall over the wreck. 

“Where to sir?” The pilot of the craft asked back into the passenger bay, not even acknowledging the small beeping alarm or the blizzard coming down or even the destroyed house that was still ablaze from the explosion. He wasn’t paid to care and so he never. 

The executive Schnee looked away from the mansion alight in orange and red and looked ahead. “The tower in Vale, as fast as possible, I wish to get there before the sun rises,” he cruelly instructed before pulling out his scroll and opening the picture he’d saved of his family from two years ago. When Winter was a specialist and under his supreme control and Weiss was just finishing her junior high years at Mantle Jr Academy. When he had them both as puppets on strings. ‘It’s high time I pulled them back into the fold before the tarnish the name of Schnee.’

Weiss and Winter were together, on the other side of the world completely oblivious and just, together, their auras mixed as they lay on the bed of the hotel room in naught but their towels from the shower they’d just taken together. Hairs were wet and bodies were still steamed and flushed from the intimate shower, while Weiss was cuddling up to her big sister, feeling her every breath and wishing she could feel them all at will for the rest of her life. She felt so vulnerable as they lay there, and kissed Winter’s wrist feebly. 

“Something the matter my love?” The elder Schnee asked in a small whisper while the rest of the girls washed and showered and readied themselves around them in a haphazard and yet quiet manner. It was hard coping with merely one en suite when they had been used to over six bathrooms for over six months. She kissed her little sister’s head and cuddled her more as she felt the smaller girl tremble just a tad in her arms.

Weiss was like this a few times, when her head fell into the habit of wandering as she contemplated their lives and situation, coming from their father at Atlas to have a further fifteen girlfriends between them. It was crazy, fictional and simply surreal, so of course Weiss would often analyse it and come up short of sense. Because it made none, and yet happened anyway, and continued to do so. 

The real truth was far more sad. Weiss never wanted it to end, not ever. She wanted to die with the women around, she never wanted any of them to leave before she did. The thought of it made her weep. 

“Can you promise me something Winter?” Weiss asked in her own whisper, void of happiness in her tone and sad for just a moment, as if she could feel her father threatening to come and end it all for her. 

“Of course I can Weiss dear, anything in my power.”

Oceanic eyes narrowed, almost teary as the little heiress cuddled closer to her big sister in the bed with the towels over them. “Don’t leave me again Winter, please not again, no matter what happens,” Weiss whispered. 

Winter kissed her head, holding her close to her bosom and never wanting to let her go as the little sister squeaked. It was as if for a moment, for their long and intimate moment as the rest of their girlfriend got ready to leave the hotel to meet the Aunts of Pyrrha and attend their musical, Winter and Weiss were alone, and back in Atlas, in the manor, alone with no mother and a father that controlled them. They were still fearful of him, of what he was trying to do, far across the world, without their knowing. It was a rational thing to be afraid of really.

“I promise Weiss. Nothing will ever part us again. Not anything ever. I love you,” Winter whispered to her little sister as she held her close and kissed her head again.

“Hey Ice Queens!” It was Yang who broke the facade of the moment, looking over them in her summer crop top and shorts with jacket in fingerless gloved hand and her shades covering her beautiful lilac eyes. Blake and Velvet were on her as the looked to the naked Schnees with her bombastic smile. “While I love seeing the pair of ya naked, don’t we have some Aunts to meet?”

Cinder was having trouble sleeping once again, not for the first time that week, and not for the first time that night. It had only been about three days since Amber had returned and yet the voices were worse than ever, like a choir of haunting resonance in her mind screaming at her to wake up an brutally drive the scissors into Jaune’s throat. They would never stop, telling her to murder him, kill him in a gruesome fashion and then the same to Mercury, and to Roman in his chair with the pillows, to smother him. And finally with Amber.

They told Cinder take her time with Amber, to mutilate her, cutting her fingers off one by one and then her eyes, until she could not see where Cinder would cut next until she died from the blood loss. Then the voices would tell Cinder to off herself. To grab the pistol in Roman’s coat and shoot herself in the head and be don with it. Several times she heard the words ‘Kindly, would you dig a grave in the park where no one can see it, and then shoot yourself into it.’ 

They would never stop. Not ever. Every night, for the whole of the night until suddenly the would stop and leave her for the four or five hours she could get. 

She left the bed with Jaune and Mercury, taking the blonde’s arms off of her and leaving him as she stumbled into the bathroom. A glass of water was downed and instead of returning to the bed with her boyfriend and his, she ventured into the living room, where Roman lay on the armchair and where the other half maiden was asleep in the couch bed. 

“Amber…” Cinder whispered, her eyes wanting to cave in they were so strained and tired. 

The half maiden awoke slightly, enough to see it was Cinder and enough to hold her hand, feeling drawn to. “Cinder? What’s the matter?”

“I… I’m have some small trouble sleeping,” Cinder lied, trying to make it seem downplayed or that it was only one bad night where she was restless. Never was a bigger lie told in her life. But still Amber opened up the sheets and invited the other half maiden dressed in shorts and a baggy shirt to come join her in the couch bed. Amber would ward off any demons, or try her best to. 

They cuddled for a while, for once the smaller Amber taking the role of the big spoon as Cinder nestled her head into soft breasts. “Cinder… There’s something I have to tell you. And I know it’s going to seem quick but I’ve been feeling it since the first day, since you revived me,” Amber stuttered in her whispering tone, shy and blushing in the dark. 

Cinder leaned up, without saying a word and kissed Amber fairly quickly and smoothly on the lips even as she frowned, her aura mixing with Amber’s in an instant once again and the night feeling at least smooth. 

“Amber. I know… And I love you too, and thank you. For a lot,” Cinder sang, still whispering, but even as they cuddled again, auras mixing. Cinder finally fell asleep soundly for the first time that week.

But the voices were still in there, only quieter than the heartbeat of the close by Amber, and Cinder had to wonder as she dreamed of peace. Why didn’t she feel the same way when she slept with Jaune? Why didn’t his heartbeat do the same?


	17. Our Last Summer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Six Months Ago... Winter and the girls fully move her in and get settled, as Yang and Blake get ever closer together as they become bondmates. Yang finally asks who the man in Blake's book is and Neo tells her where she can find him. And even further in the past, we finally hear the story of how Summer Rose and Raven Branwen got together as partners, then as girlfriends.

Six Months Ago

“Please don’t make me wear it Yang, please no,” Blake whimpered as she hid in the box that the girls’ small care package came in. Winter had splashed out to some luxuries since she had only a few hundred lien left to her name. 

Yang, who was wide eyed and donning the biggest grin she had ever shown, was slowly edging her feline girlfriend and bond mate into one of the corners of the dorm with a black shirt in her hand, the one Yang and new girlfriend Winter had agreed would look the cutest on Blake. It was short sleeved, a rather plain looking thing with the symbol for bisexuality in the usual blend of blue, purple and lilac with the words ‘The World’s Okayest Bisexual’ in sparkling letters across the front. Winter and the blonde thought it would suite little Blakey more so than her huntress outfit, however Blake herself was not convinced. She had zipped right into the cardboard box everything came in. 

But still the blonde pursued her, as Glynda sat with the still injured and tired Emerald Sustrai on the bed and while little Neo was messing about on a scroll that Winter had bought for her. It had been some weeks since they all converged on Beacon and on the group of eight girlfriends, which had grown again. 

Currently, they were all dating Winter now too, especially Weiss, who was currently a little miffed, sulking on her sister’s lap as they all observed Blake attempt to scoot around Yang as she came at her. Weiss had already been claimed and was wearing her own personalised shirt gifted by her dear elder sister. 

“Blakeeeeey, just come out of the box and wear the shirt,” Yang pleaded in a moan, even doing her best to pout. Blake was of course watching through the slit, and saw the genuine look of sadness on her girlfriend’s face, the swell of her bottom lip as it came to be so big with wide eyes. She could see Yang’s. Her black shirt with very apt lettering. ‘I Consider Myself a PUN Sexual’ it said and everyone knew that Winter had truly grasped Yang Xiao Long the fastest aside from Weiss. Yang was pansexual indeed, and had more puns than she knew what to do with. 

The faunus finally relented, at Yang’s seemingly coming tears, and the box flaps opened only for the tepid Blake to snatch the shirt and then pop completely out of the box with it on, her hands behind her back and her face blushing wildly. She was embarrassed, and they all knew it. But Yang grinned massively. 

Her arms reached around the nervous feline and she held her close. “You’re more than an okay bisexual Blake honey. You’re the best bisexual in the world, and I love you more than anything. You’re so cute,” Yang whispered with a smile. Blake’s face popped, and she was almost crying. 

Upon releasing each other from the hug, Blake took a second and pulled Yang in for one of the most passionate kisses she ever had during their time together, hugging her again afterward. 

“Remember at the start when I said I wanted to have sex with you, Weiss and Ruby for months?” The faunus whispered as she held her Yangarang close to her. Yang only hummed, a little curious of what the kitty cat was about to say. She was still a little reserved, Blake, still holding some her feelings back and always reading with Ruby and Pyrrha.

“Yang I’ve wanted to be with you since I first laid eyes on you the first night we stayed here. I really think I fell in love with you that night. And it was why I searched for you in the forest. I had to be your partner Yang. I wanted to be with you more than anything.”

By the time Yang and Blake finished their hug, the blonde dragon was actually crying, her eyes were big and blotchy and Blake’s yellow orbs were glimmering in the midday light. She was smiling, blushing even as she saw her bondmate slowly sob. 

Never had anything said that to her, not anything like it, Blake was the first person ever in Yang’s small life to have said something so lovely, so genuine and something that would stick in her mind forever. She would not ever allow herself to forget what the faunus said. Not ever, she would rather be dead than forget that moment. The tears fully began to fall as Yang smiled and wrapped her organic and cybernetic arms around her Blake again. The rest of girls were sobbing a little too. 

Weiss had completely mellowed in Winter’s arms, after seeing Blake quietly pour her heart out to the dragon, both wearing their silly and yet perfect queer t-shirts. The heiress thought it was beautiful and of course could tell that Blake had fallen head over heels for the blonde from the first night. It was not exactly hard, but for the faunus to say it, however quiet, she could only imagine how Yang was feeling. 

“Winter,” Weiss peeped, holding her sweater around her. 

Her apparel gift was a matching sweater to Winter, with some slight variations but the same design and humour. They were both a light blue colour, with Winter’s being a little more lilac coloured lighter than the blonde dragon’s eyes. Enblazened across Winter’s chest was ‘Big Sis’ with a stereotypical alien’s head and then the text again on the arm, while little Weiss had a the same alien on hers with ‘Baby Sis’ underneath. Of course Weiss’s alien was crowned and had a pacifier. She felt ashamed of it at first, but not after seeing the bees buzz.

“I really like our jumpers dear. Thank you for getting me this,” the heiress sang a little quieter, but it did the job. It made the adjusting Winter smile and kiss her sister and girlfriend on her cheek, prompting the smaller Schnee to snuggle tenderly in her elder sister’s bosom. 

At the same time Yang’s head was still spinning, and she felt her mind toss itself back, years at a time while she was holding Blake close. The current room was still, Neo and her scroll, Glynda and Emerald cuddling in bed, Ruby nestled sleepily in the arms of Pyrrha and Nora, Weiss with Winter as Coco and Velvet were at work. Yang’s head spun, and she remembered something peculiar, as if the words Blake had said to her were registered in her head before, but not spoken directly to her. 

As if from a book, a fairytale, or a simple recollection of past events from one Summer Rose at Yang’s bedside one night when she was seven. When she asked Summer what her partner was like. 

23 Years Ago 

The summer air was soft and warm, the feeling was right and the Valian night was beautiful, the vast array of stars moving in over her as Summer Rose built her small fire in the clearing of the Emerald Forest. She was alone and yeat she felt at home among the trees, not at all worrying about the temperature drop for her thick and comforting white cloak would keep her warm in even arboreal temperatures. It was her grandmother’s weaving and she had told her dear granddaughter Summer that not matter what she would face during her huntress training at Beacon, she would be kept safe by that cloak. 

‘You could come across Grimm, or magicians, or some shadowy ninja woman with a colossal blade. That cloak will protect you from almost anything.’ Her grandmother had told her the say she gifted her the white cloak.

‘Almost anything grandmama?’

‘Don’t tell anyone, but I actually couldn’t get it to stop the shadowy ninja women with long blades. So be careful around them.’ Grandmother Rose had advised her cherub young huntress before she left for Beacon. Thus far, no heading into the third day at Beacon, since the Initiation had stretched on into the night, the only friend young Summer Rose had in all the world was her trusty cloak and shielded her from the cold coming in.

Her little fire was crackling in the semi silence, all else she could hear was the faint gunfire from elsewhere in the Emerald Forest, and she theorised that all the other partners by now would be annoyed. Summer had not seen anyone since being launched from, and thus still had no partner, and she was certainly not in a rush to find one, she was loving the forest too much. It was the only real chance she had now to be alone, and in some sense the cloaked woman had unintentionally made it a game to be alone for as long as possible.

For now, she would simply lay back, take in the perfectly crisp air and absorb the verdant aura of the lush green all around her. Her small spot was a nice one, an outcropping that was roughly contained, and clear enough so that Grimm rarely ever ventured into it, which left Summer alone and fairly safe, secure and able to relax against her tree as she pulled her headphones from her belt bag. She of course was a small music freak, and it was the perfect time to listen to something. 

“You might not want to dull one of your senses. Just because Grimm don’t usually venture into this clearing, doesn’t mean they won’t,” said a deep and milky voice from above Summer.

The headphones dropped to the floor and she was startled a little. She had found someone, or rather they, a she, had found her. 

The woman in the tree was a rather opposite figure to Summer, with jet black hair, a sort of void colour that lacked all sun and brightness, in the dark she looked as if she was wearing a veil of sorts, or nothing, it was so black. Her outfit was a mix of a slightly lighter black with a very dark crimson, the same shade as her eyes as Summer looked up with her silver orbs. Her arms were armoured in a scale like set with her chest covered by her shirt, and a beautiful necklace around her neck. 

At first glance, the woman reminded Summer of a Nevermore, how she stalked the plain from her perch in the trees as the idle rose simply sat by her fire, content to never find another soul. But now, as she looked to the woman’s face, young and rather striking with a masculine beauty but also a feminine wiley trace, Summer could only think one thing. 

‘She’s my partner, dust.’ Summer thought, unable to speak to the woman above her. Her face was a rose red, completely taken whole in blush. ‘But she’s so pretty!’

‘Get a hold of yourself girl, this is your partner now, for the next four years.’ Shy Summer had to control herself, and cover her face with her hands and cloak. “Hey! You! What exactly are ya doing up there?” Summer asked in a squeak, not showing her face at all, causing Raven to jump down. 

“Well, I was scouting for a good place to sleep,” Raven reported coldly before checking her new partner’s fire. “But I suppose with two of us, it should be safe enough. I guess this makes us--

“P-P-Partners?” Summer peeped from behind her cute cloak, hood still up and her body shrouded. “Well! My name is Summer Rose!” The caped woman exploded, revealing her face and grinning one massive grin to hopefully hide the sustained blush. 

Unexpectedly to Summer, as her smile soon faded and her hand was left vacant from a greeting, she saw her new partner blush too. A streak of red smeared across her face as she was speechless and edging her hand towards Summer’s. 

“My name is…. Branwen.” 

Summer had heard that name a few times already, around the campus yesterday and during the morning before the initiation had begun. But it was not that of a woman. The name Branwen was related to a strapping young man in a rather dapper waistcoat ensemble and a tattered cape. The one gentleman named Crow who wielded a large blade that had a powerful hand cannon worked into the hilt. The woman in front of the blushing rose, did not certainly match that description. 

For one, Summer was actually attracted to this woman, and was mesmerised by her.

The raven haired assassin with the long blade as Summer saw coughed briskly. “Raven. Raven Branwen,” she finished, still blushing, with her hand finally reaching out. At that point Summer had mellowed however and her motherly friend side had taken over, despite her knees feeling weak in front of Raven. Summer was cooing and reeling inside over how beautiful she was in her face. She was, just so pretty.

The cloaked rose embraced her new partner in a warm hug, holding her so close and making Raven seemingly gasp from the surprise, she was obviously not a hugger whereas Summer was the worst for it. “I guess this means we’re really partners!” She smiled immensely. Ummer was more happy than she could even describe, than she could even show. Sure, she was content to simply never find a partner, and live in the Emerald Forest until one of the small time and useless students found her while running away from a colossal Grimm, but this was even better. The woman she had found, or rather, had stumbled upon was far prettier and much more preferable to some male. Raven was very much, something very different. 

“So, what do we do n--” Before Raven could even finish asking Summer what their next move was, there came a thundering noise from the bushes and from it erupted two young men, one blonde and one grey, running from a Grimm, and from what Summer could make out, it was a Beringel. A large gorilla styled Grimm that looked like it was going to wreck the entire forest before actually stamping on the two young men and killing them. 

Summer smiled again, flashing her cloak open and revealing her weapon, or weapons; two chained throwing battle axes. She was ready for a fight and actually raring to go and begin her partnership with combat. The blade sheathed at Raven’s gun looking sheath looked like it could deal some massive damage, but Summer was fast, the fastest. 

“Well,” Summer grunted while cracking her knuckles and grabbing her axes from her sides. “Looks like we’re helping out these two bozos,” she yipped with her eyes closed and a childish smile on her face, running into the fray as the two boys turned and actually fought the beast.

Raven had her hand on her face, trying not to see the spectacular skeptical before her. “Summer… One of them is my brother,” he huffed before grabbing her longsword and setting a portal down beside her and behind the gorilla. 

Six Months Ago

Yang was with Neo, again, and with Pyrrha as Blake sat on the floor with her book, the personal book she kept with her writing and her drawings of the mysterious man with the red eyes. At least sometimes he would have red eyes, the other times he would simply wear his mask, the White Fang mask that Yang and Blake had both seen in their battles with the terrorist group. 

It was one of the occasions that the faunus did break out her single pencil and rubber, and began to draw, only this time the faunus wasn’t gracing the page with another portrait of the shrouded man from long ago. This time Blake was blissfully drawing a landscape, etching herself, on Yang’s lap, and the blonde with a reed and using it to distract the feline from one of her novels. However Blake was torturing herself the whole while, reminding herself of her past, and how she could never let go, because the man with the blood red hair was still out there, he was still alive, and no doubt he was still searching for her.

No doubt Adam still wanted to kill her. 

“How is the PDA going Neo? Are you adjusting to it well?” Pyrrha asked across the room as she stopped her own studying for the moment. It was an odd day, the sun was blazing outside and there were at least three fans cooling the room, but Blake and Yang had wanted to take a day rest from the summer fun. Ruby and Coco were out having a small little date to themselves, Glynda was no doubt showing Emerald around the campus and town, and showing her where all the exits were, Velvet, Nora, Weiss and Winter were down in Vale, searching for Summer wear for the taller Schnee, as she had virtually no wardrobe but her Specialist gear, the comedic sweater she had, but would not dare wear in this weather, and some underwear. She needed far more to keep up with the girls. 

No doubt of course, Velvet and Nora had taken to ‘Silken Desires’ as a joke. And of course, knowing Winter, she would spend her last lien on actually buying a full line of sexy bunny outfits for all her girlfriends. At least she wouldn’t have to buy the ears for Velvet, that was a plus in her mind. 

Still, Neo looked at Pyrrha with a smile as she showed her the PDA she was roughly working. Winter had managed to secure one from Atlas by way of an old friend, it would have a speech software, allowing the little ice cream lady to speak and convey what she was thinking as accurate as possible. Neo still signed however, not that confident to use the speech software with the beautiful and lovely champion just yet. After all Pyrrha was one of the girls that Neo had come to like the most, but not as much as Yang of course. The blonde was very much Neo’s favourite, even though the grudge and bad blood was still present and still staining their relationship as growing friends. 

‘It’s going very well hon! Just, the interface is hard to figure’ Neo signed over. Yang got just the hint of it. Pyrrha had been giving her lessons on sign language over the passing days and she was slowly getting to grips with what Neo had been saying to Pyrrha. Even some of the other girls, Coco, Winter, Weiss, even Blake, were all beginning to slowly understand Neo. 

Yang slid off the side of the bed and into Blake, her arms wrapping around her smoothly and her lips pecking her soft cheek lovingly as the redhead moved herself over to talk with Neo. 

“Whatcha doodling honey? Is that my hair?” The blonde asked as she saw the scribbles on the page of parchment, Yang feeling her hair afterwards. She was a little self conscious because Blake had drawn her hair tied back and from the angle she was looking, Yang felt that her hair looked strange like that. It was in a tail similar to Pyrrha’s, only Yang had never really tried it with such majesty. 

Blake simply let out a soft hum and held Yang’s cheek before giving her a sideways smooch and continued briskly. She was in her groove and wanted to have the etching done soon. She was hoping to add in the rest of the girls before long, but not that day. It was just to be her and Yang for now, sitting happily and reading, as Blake often did to her blonde bondmate. 

“Why is my hair in a ponytail like Pyrrha’s?” The blonde wondered, looking more closely as Pyrrha turned her head. She looked at the drawing too and smiled, not making a noise for she knew Blake was not looking for any, she just wanted to draw in peace with her girlfriends around her. And she did, styling her dragon’s luscious hair the way she wanted it to look on the paper, not because she wanted Yang to wear it in a ponytail, but because she wanted to make the drawing look something that Yang would like. And Blake knew that the end product would be beautiful; she had a talent for the lines, and drawing her girlfriends, Blake suddenly never wanted to take her pencil away from the page, from the lines. 

Still, there was the menacing red eyes of the man above her and Yang, looking at her. His eyes still deep and his voice ringing in her head.

Before her mind could trail off to thoughts of him with her emotions pouring out and her eyes tear, Yang broke her line of concentration into his face with her hand. They were on both cheeks and pulling her face in for one sweet and passionate kiss, fully pouring all the love Yang had for her into it. The dragon’s hands wandered down to the paper and covered the book, holding Blake’s hands with the pencil in the middle of one of them. 

Then the book was soon set to the side, the pencil in the middle, rested on the curve of the binding and with the picture of the man with red eyes and red hair looking down over the unfinished landscape of Blake, with her beautiful dragon. 

“Blakey, you know I love you more than anything in the world right? We’re bondmates,” Yang whispered as Pyrrha and Neo moved themselves again over to the wall, cuddling on the pillow. It seemed the redhead had very quickly gotten close to the ice cream assassin. The blonde was still weary, she had to be. 

The yellow eyed faunus simply smiled, her eyes smokey and fluttering before she pulled at Yang’s collar, pulling her in for another warm kiss as hands explored. Blake’s went right into the blonde’s shorts and under the panty line, feeling the soft texture of the bare flesh of Yang’s peachy rear that Blake had felt so many time, but she still thought it was one of the softest parts of her. The other hand, it went to Yang’s right arm, taking it aside as Blake broke the kiss softly and then trailed a series of soft pecks up the arm, the faux one, the one made of metal and overlaid with a synthetic compound to resemble and feel like flesh. Only it couldn’t feel anything, not yet. Winter was already working on that. But Blake didn’t mind, she kissed it and caressed it anyway, even to the padded fingertips, and Yang started to cry mildly as she saw it. 

She was so self conscious about the appendage, but only around her girlfriends, only ever around the girls, and Blake and Weiss more than anything. She knew it was hard to deal with, hard to live with, the fact that really, she was a cripple, she was disabled. Yang had only one real arm. And it was a constant reminder of how stupid she was, how stupid she saw herself as. But more than anything, it was an eternal reminder that Yang was broken, and she came from one of the most broken families in the world.

If only she knew how broken it actually was. 

Blake wiped away her tears, with a soft caress and another kiss, soft and serene, and instead of their usual way, how they would gradually work to love making, with Pyrrha and Neo probably having to leave the room, they simply sat there, against the bed. Their heads together and hands laid on top of the other, in blissful silence until Yang asked the question that had been plaguing her for months, almost a year. It was the question that Blake had hoped she would never have to answer, not to anyone. 

“Blake…. Who was he?”

Her expression dropped as if from orbit and her eyes fell inside her. Yang had finally asked, of course she did, it was a short matter of time, and Blake had done incredibly to avoid the question for as long as she had, given how many times the blonde and the rest of the girls had seen inside her book. She gulped and took a small breath. Pyrrha and Neo were now sitting attentively, and ready to hear the story that was impending as Blake’s eyes stayed inside her skull. How could she possibly describe him? 

This was Adam Taurus, and Yang was asking who he was, who he was to Blake Belladonna.

How in the world could Blake tell Yang, and of course Pyrrha, that Adam was Blake’s entire life before she came to Beacon? How could she say the words? That Adam Taurus was the dreaded leader of the White Fang. That he was her partner, her boyfriend, her master in almost every single connotation of the vulgar word she had come to know him by. It was the horrible and unpleasant, dirty truth. And she did not want to say it, not any of it. Blake couldn’t, she feared she would lose everything she had with Yang and with the others.

“I….” The words would not come out, Blake’s subconscious would not allow them, not at all. She wanted to be sick, but instead, her eyes swelled and before she knew it, the tears were rolling down the cheeks of her slightly tanned face. The cowering feline fell, burying herself into Yang’s chest as she cried. 

“His name is Adam, he’s the leader of the White Fang and…” She whispered so that only Yang could hear between the sobs. “And he was my partner, my master.” Yang coveted the book from the floor, placing it on the bed as she clutched Blake closely, her head into the blonde’s own chest. 

Yang’s eyes, were redder than they had ever been. 

“Neo,” she stated flatly and the small ice cream girl came over, close to Yang’s face with an attentive look on her face, a look of pure obedience, gesturing that her past was a blank slate and now, looking into Yang’s eyes, she was cooperative. Whatever order Yang gave to Neo in those few seconds, the little lady would follow with a salute and a stomp. 

“Have you ever seen this man before? He’s the leader of the White Fang,” the seething dragon asked, and Neo, hesitated, for a small second, before cowering back just a pace. She looked Yang square on, her vanilla and chocolate eyes looking directly into the blood red in Yang’s face, and Neo nodded in confirmation. 

‘Mommy, would you have done anything for Mom?’ The child inside Yang voiced.

There was a time where she would have never have given those fleeting childhood moments a second thought except at birthdays, the holidays, whenever Qrow or her father Tai would pull out the photo albums. But Yang could feel her smaller, younger self see the moments as clear as the water from Patch to Vale. It was the strangest sensation, unpleasant too, as if she was having the phantom pains again. Only this wasn’t as intense, nor erratic. It was just the phenomena that made the sensation. 

Those days, so neatly compacted together in the summer that seemed to last forever, where Yang was surrounded by more love than she had ever known, where life seemed to melt and be taken over by fiction. It was the first real time Yang had actually thought about her mother, about Summer Rose, for an elongated amount of time.

‘There was a time, dust even now, that if Raven ever needed anything in the world, I would be there for her, with whatever she needed in hand. And I would never be sad with her around. Your mom, she could make me smile come rain or shine Yangarang,’ Summer had told her, crying in the night. It was another one of the bedroom tales. One of those that Yang had never known whether it was true or false. At that time it never mattered, she had her mom, she had her dad, and she had her little sister. Raven was never a part of the equation for Yang.

But Raven had always and would always be a part of the equation for Summer, forever.

23 Years Ago…

To Summer, dances were always boring, frivolous, a futile event that all the popular students attended in hopes of getting illegally drunk or losing their virginity to either a partner of a year or more, or someone they had just met. Summer Rose was not into that at all. Yet she found herself out of her comfort zone, in a long white gown and her cloak, there was no way she was giving that up for the sake of a school dance, and in the Grand Hall of Beacon. She was there and waiting excitedly by the punch bowl, with word in her ear that Qrow had persuaded Raven to join him for an hour in the hall. 

All Summer wanted, was to finally confess. To tell Raven she loved her. 

Team STRQ had been operating and together around Beacon for three months, since they all came together after defeating the giant gorilla Grimm in the Emerald Forest. Summer Rose was chosen to lead the three renegades and vagabonds, in hopes that she would bring them all something they could not bring themselves; purpose and clarity. 

There was Taiyang Xiao Long, the strapping and handsome blonde archer who donned his suit well and his battle garbs even better in class and in training, he was a gentlemen in every sense of the word and in every aspect of his daily life. Summer could already feel her heart beginning to flutter for him and grow heavy whenever he talked to her. There was his partner and Raven’s brother, Qrow Branwen, with his long broadsword that could transform into a vicious scythe and his body into a beautiful raven. That was useful when spying on the rival and friendly teams before a skirmish as well as the random shenanigans that Summer and Tai orchestrated. They even got the brooding female member of their team to smile every once in awhile; although, Raven smiled a lot for Summer, and blushed too. 

Then there was Raven, whose sword was lethal on the battlefield and whose reserved nature was deeming her a tough shell to crack. “Don’t bother her and soon enough she’ll warm up to you. If she tries to smother you in your sleep it means she likes you,” Qrow had to tell Tai to not frighten him off him and his sister, his twin sister at that. 

But Summer didn’t leave Raven, she was her partner, and in the three months that had been partners, Summer was doing all she could to earn something from the obsidian haired swordswoman she was smitten with. In fact, as she thought about it, the team leader reconciled that she had in fact been pining over Raven since the Emerald Forest, since that first handshake. Hence, she was at the dance, not covering her head in her hood in the dorm and just standing by the punch bowl, with a glass of it in hand and trying not to internally die from awkwardness that was it. She just had to wait, and luckily, her teammate was nearby, as awkward. 

“Evening boss,” he grunted, grabbing a glass of punch for himself, even slipping in a dash of brandy that he and Qrow had swiped from Professor Cloud’s office. Summer didn’t say anything, she’d spiked her own punch with just a touch of gin to take her edge off, and thus for it was working. “Good night so far?” Tai asked, making sure to be as warm and as caring as possible, more so than usual. He knew the plan and so did Qrow, they knew what Summer was planning and made every step accordingly to get Raven and her well dressed butt down the stairs and into the hall for Summer to dance with, then the leader would confess.

With the plan going as smoothly as possibly planned, the evening would end with the masses heading into Vale to get even more illegally wasted on fake IDs and word of mouth, even swiping liquor, and Summer, making out with Raven on the rooftops under the shattered moon. Like a scene from a movie, one that Summer would like and show Raven later in life when they had two kids and a cabin in the woods somewhere nice. 

She was still nervous however. Summer was almost shaking as she drank the last of her glass, taking another one after it, minus the gin. 

“So far so…” She stuttered, and Taiyang was not buying any of it. He may have been an average savant at most things, but when it came to people, when it came to his team, Tai knew when moods were not right, when body language spoke differently and when something was ailing them. He was a reader of people and when it came to particularly Summer, he could spot a fluctuation a mile off, if anything just by the little wibbles of her aura.  
Placing his glass to the side and walking around the table he hugged her closely, making the poor girl blush to within an inch of her life, and hold him closely. The muscles on his back were plainly perfect to touch, to feel convulse as he flexed just a little while cuddling her. His suit was smart too, a posh and proper dress suit that must have cost him more than he was willing, either that or his elder brother had a really well kempt hand me down suit. Tai felt perfect in it, and he suited it. Summer could only think of what he would look like as a bridegroom, waiting at the altar for his partner, or partners. She still was not sure of his sexuality, although from subtle reading and in the moment moments she doubted he was completely straight. He just did not seem the man to confine himself to women, he was too open minded and she read him as queer. However in the whole three months the only man he had really bonded with was Qrow and the only women too were herself and then Raven. Well, there were a few others from a couple of other teams, but never a girlfriend or boyfriend. 

What was strange, only mildly, and certainly welcome to her, was that Tai, kissed her forehead. 

“Hey listen, boss. She’s on her way and she looks so beautiful Summer, Qrow texted me,” Tai told her in a hushed voice, holding his team leader close. A smile made its way across his face as he could feel her almost vibrate and buzz with the excitement, and he could feel the heat and blush radiate off of her. The lovely man could tell how excited she was now and how eager she was to see the dark haired woman walk down the stairs. 

She eventually burst before Tai, while the music played and the dancers danced, the kissers kissed and the drinkers drank. “Gah! Tai I cannot take it! I just need to see her and tell her Tai!” Summer squirmed in his arms, fully wrapping her own around his lean waist. She was positively shuddering in his arms, and he kissed her head again like the gentleman he was, before looking to the staircase as he felt a small buzz in his pocket.

“I don’t think you’ll have to wait long boss. Look.”

There shae came, walking down the grand staircase, in her long evening gown with the shoulder straps effortlessly draped over the side of her biceps as she held her twin’s hand and he helped her down the marble. She barely ever wore heels, in fact Summer had never seen anything but the girl’s combat boots on her feet. Her eyes were smoky, with the most beautiful of shadow and her lips dark red, the same as her bloodstone eyes that invited in Summer’s mind and tore to shreds under the mental sheets. She looked, quite simply, stunning. Summer was blown away.

Her cape was dashed, as she walked very mesmerised to the steps to meet them, to meet the gorgeous Raven in her long and frilled gown with encrusted ambers littered at the necklace and the waist, and with a feathered piece at her shoulder. Her hair, it was something else entirely. Curled and flowing down, in the exact same style as the daughter of blonde they would come to mother with the reluctant and shy charmer Tai. 

Qrow saw Summer, and knew it was time he left to hang out by the punch bowl for the entire evening with his partner, not finding a broad to dance with; although the Lilly Sisters looked beautiful enough. Nevertheless, his hand carried Raven’s forward to Summer’s as both of the women were blushing redder than the dark crimson of the dark haired girl’s dress.

“I believe you’re my sister’s date tonight?” Qrow asked with a comical smile and a joking stature. Summer simply bumbled and he smiled even more, knowing how cute it was and how nervous Summer was, only he knew that his twin was more nervous than she. “Well just so you know, boss, her curfew is eleven, and no drinking. Now have fun you two, I see a punch bowl that needs to be spiked before Port locks it down and kicks me out.”

Silver eyes met with bloodstone and the women could barely breathe, let alone speak. Summer was void of all breath and Raven’s mouth was as dry as ever, but both knew what the other was going to try and say and do, and when words finally broke free of the blushing messes that were the girls, they collided into each other.

“You look beautiful tonight,” they both mumbled through, saying the same thing at the same time. “No really you do,” again it happened. “I think you look the prettiest here,” and a third time they spoke in perfect harmony, until Raven placed her bold finger on Summer’s lips and took her other hand in her own. 

“Summer, I wasn’t sold on coming, until Qrow told me you were planning to ask me something?” The dark haired beauty asked melodically, her hands moving to her front then, however they soon moved as Summer edged a little closer. The nerves were bouncing off of each other but as they held hands and stood close, the whole world seemed to melt away from around them, until they were the only two people left in their own little dimension, away and yet in the middle of the hall, music still playing. It was a nice music, soft and slow, piano tunes that seemed perfectly and deliberately chosen for their moment together.

The silver eyed and white dressed girl had to take Raven aside, onto the dance floor, with arms assuming positions on hips she smiled and swayed. So far, so good, but Summer was hotter than ever, her knees shaking as she saw Raven actually smile and keep it there. Their auras were flying wild, and soon found one another, and mixed as two usually did in time of deep intimacy or sex. It was in many ways intimate, as Summer told herself over and over again in her mind that she loved Raven, loved her so so much and wanted to kiss her. To kiss her under the moon and the stars, she would not do it inside, it was her moment to snatch and perform where she wanted. 

‘Have to get her outside Summer. Have to ask her out and kiss her you damn silly woman!’ She yelled at herself, but the music flipped. It changed.

The pianist fluttered his fleeting fingers over the keys and the main singer for the night came onto the mic loud and yet soft at the same time, lulling a soothing ballad as he looked almost directly at the two birds in the middle of the dancefloor. Summer knew something was wrong, it had to be, this was not the plan at all, not ever, there was no singer. She looked to Qrow and to Tai only they were as clueless as she was. 

“Raven?” She asked and the taller woman chuckled to herself as they swayed. It was her doing, all of it. She had planned the entire evening. 

“Hold me closer tiny dancer…” The vocalist sang from the stage and Raven swayed a little more, and then spinning her date smoothly, catching her in a dip and then back up, to sway her hips more and feel her way up Summer’s luscious curves, her small love handles.

The taller bird was still giggling as the singer took his attention off of them for a second and he moved around the room still singing away his ballad. The giggles looked so natural on her, the smile looking as if she should be happy all the time, and she was, she would be, with Summer there to stoke the fire of her heart. She knew that Raven was possibly the most lovely person she had met, her and Tai and Qrow, but Raven more so than anyone, she just needed someone to make her see it and channel it. And Summer wanted so so much to be her steady, her rock, her lover and her girlfriend as well as partner and leader.

“I’m sorry Summer, but I may have planned the entire evening as an act of deception in order to ask you something instead, and I’ve got to ask you tonight, it’s too perfect, and cliche as hell,” Raven smiled, ethereally as her lashes blinked effortlessly. 

The blush across Summer’s face was far too much, and she even pouted angrily. 

Before anything else, she stopped her sway and took Raven by the hand, pulling her with her towards the exit, the two gentlemen of Team STRQ following rapidly to make sure there was not some kind of argument, of course there was not. Summer simply had to take charge of the night, and not allow Raven’s plan to interrupt her own before anything else. She wanted her smooch under the stars, and she was getting it, as they stood on the cobbles outside of the hall, with Summer having to stand on tiptoes.

She pressed herself up, holding Raven still and defiantly, she pressed her lips to the taller woman’s, the sparks flying out like a thousand fireworks erupting into suns and stars as their love and the moment was painting in the night sky.

They held it for what seemed like an hour, Summer melting into Raven’s hold and her into Summer’s. The two women just standing there, kissing in the night, as the party continued inside with the dance. They had what they both wanted, and didn’t need anything else, they had their kiss and the moment, it was enough for a lifetime. It was a lifetime, in one fraction of infinity. 

“I love you Raven, and I’d do anything for you, anything to see you smile,” Summer gasped when they finally broke the kiss and stayed holding each other, the red in her cheeks so vibrant and beautiful. 

“And I love you Summer. And I’ll do anything for you, to keep you safe, to protect you. You’re my partner, and I hope you’ll be more than that.”

Summer didn’t even need to say anything, except kiss Raven again and whisper a petite and rasped ‘yes’.

Raven was all she wanted, all she needed for the time being. She loved Raven, and felt she would for so much longer.


	18. Give Me Novocaine/She's A Rebel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amber and Jaune train all morning, improving the young paladin's skills ahead of the incoming Vytal Tournament and even get a little closer in the locker rooms after. Meanwhile, the Rainbow Girls are introduced to Pyrrha's famous Aunts and Yang receives a gift she never imagined she would. And Cinder makes a choice, one that will change her forever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains high trigger warnings for the ending scene of the chapter, spoiler alert but for anyone who cannot handle suicide, please stop after the Aunts scene and come back next time.

"Come on, it helps if you actually try to hit me!" Amber shouted through the dojo, her staff deflecting another stab of the cold sword. They had been at it for four hours, and yet they were getting nowhere at all.

The half maiden had to do something to change it up, and she did. On the next slash and follow stab, when Jaune's guard was instinctively down she flipped the butt of her staff upward and clocked him in the jaw. He staggered, with a sharp moan of pain as he dropped his blade and held his face. It wasn't a hard jab from the veteran twenty-six-year-old, but it did hurt the feeble blonde. The weeks spent getting better and more stable when fighting were dashed when it came to sparring with Amber, she was just too good.

Jaune wished she could take his place in Vytal. Wished she could fight with Merc and take their names to the final and win the trophy. But she was far too old.

"Jaune! Wake up and try again. You're getting there hon, just, don't watch me, watch my arms," she told him, taking a stance again and leaping spryly, light as a feather on her tanned and beautiful feet.

He really liked her feet, and the legs they were attached to, and then the waist they were connected with. In fact there was not much of Amber that Jaune didn't like, and he could tell why Cinder loved her, even after a short time. She was nimble, well rounded and very beautiful; her eyes were so remarkable and striking, as well as her cheeks, they were gorgeous, and then her arms, strong and built, just like her chest, even with her bustiness poking through the sports bra. She was so sporty and sarcastic, and when she fought, he could tell she'd been the top of the class when she was in school, which made him think. He didn't know where she studied.

"Okay, I got this, come at me Am," Jaune hyped up, thinking he could disarm her if he was lucky. He had to psyche himself up, he was better, ten times so than before Merc, Cinder and Roman had begun training him.

She did as he asked and came at him, spinning her staff and sweating almost. 'Come on Jaune, bust this thing out my hands' she begged in her head as she advanced. She was rooting for him through and through, knowing how much he wanted to improve and how much he had already. Even though she hadn't known how bad a fighter he was before, she could sense his aura and how bold it was compared to that of Merc's or Roman's. Jaune's aura was bright and beautiful and sometimes it was all she could see of him.

It wasn't as if she sprinted at him, flailing the wooden staff like a maul, but she spun it around and, with her fancy footwork with her beautiful feet, slowly petalled towards him with her weapon at him. She was hoping he could pull it off, but with a two step deflection, she eventually broke the hold he had of Crocea Mors and the blade fell from his hands.

Again he'd failed to disarm her.

"Damn it!" He thundered in frustration. "Why can't I get it?!" Again he roared, kicking the air and stomping over to the bench and grabbing a drink of water, not even regarding the others around the dojo, he was too pissed at himself. It was all too much for himself, he just wanted to perform a simple parry and riposte, like any normal swordsman. There were a thousand men and women that could have it done it in their childhoods, as a toddler most probably, and yet Jaune was pushing his nineteenth birthday with not a single win under his belt at all. It was more infuriating than crushing on Weiss only to learn she was a hardcore homosexual and actually repulsed by men at the best of times.

Amber was there within moments, his sword in one hand as she set her staff against the wall, a look of understanding and apology on her face, with graceful charm in her beautiful eyes. Despite all of it she thought he was cute, in his own way. She thought his hair was so majestic, so beautiful with the curls of blonde and even lighter vanilla in the undertones. And of course his blue eyes were perfect, in every way, if the rest of his might have been rough and bumpy, he was still young, and she'd soon have him pulling off better maneuvers than the so called Invincible Girl. Amber hadn't even met or heard of Pyrrha before, which was surprising, but she already felt that she needed to be knocked from her pedestal and shown to be just as human as the rest of the world.

"You know what you're doing wrong right? I mean I can see it in your form, you're too tense because you always feel like this time will be the same as the last-"

"But it's always like the last!" Jaune interrupted her, his eyes a little teary but just too tense for his own good. But he knew how right she was really, he was always afraid that every single movement he made would result in a failure and slip up, ending his ass on the floor. "Every time I move I fuck it up and cannot get it right!" He roared.

The half maiden flipped over the blade, until she was holding Crocea Mors at it's hild and then pointing the end at his chest, poking him with it. "You mess up because you think you will! It's time you realise that you're as good as me Jaune, that you actually have talent and you can do it all. Like Roman, and Mercury, Cinder. You can do it all better than Pyrrha can."

He looked right at her. "No I can't, no one can beat Pyrrha," he told Amber matter of factly, in his stern voice as his body convulsed. Even just remembering his time with her made him churn, if not for the fact that she was still angry at him and he had no idea why.

Jaune had given up a lot to care for the horde of villains, and whenever he thought of Pyrrha, it was not a short jump to all the memories of Team JNPR and the year and a half he spend with them as leader. All before Pyrrha filed for her partnership with him to end and from that, Nora sided with her and Ren simply left the team all together. Yes, they all still attended classes at Beacon, but their team exercises were scrapped and they were looked upon with a varying degree of disdain. Jaune was easy pickings for Cardin.

But he was here, out of the dorms and living with some of the most fascinating people on the planet and learning from them how to be the best fighter there could be. He had to be, with Vytal and Merc, he was not going to be the same old Jaune anymore. He was going to be a new and better Jaune, one that would meet Pyrrha in the arena, and not flinch because she used to be his friend. In his eyes, she had killed their team, and he needed an answer as to why she had.

He knew nothing of why. And he knew nothing of Pyrrha's past, as Nora did. That was why she did it. But of course, how was he to know? He was pining over Weiss at the time.

Amber laughed. "Well, I always like a challenge. But for now just grab this fucking sword and stop trying to parry me, and just do it Jaune. I know you can do this!" She told him, even more sternly than he had done with her. The rough and beautiful half maiden was the perfect mentor for him, understanding and grasping of who and how he was while at the same time unforgiving and reinforcing more than anyone who had taught him before. If she was to be a teacher, she'd be threatening to put Glynda out of a job. Only anyone who had ever done that ended up six feet under in complaints and never got hired again.

'Stop trying to hit her and hit her. Right. What the hell does that mean Jauney? It means actually forget what you're doing and just go with it. That's what she's trying to tell you dummy!'

He stood up, bending over to grab his ancient blade and wiping the sweat from his silky blonde hair. They could all say what liked about Jaune, he didn't care and hadn't since kissing Cinder that day months ago, he was getting better, he was a small ember that was burning into a raging inferno brighter than Cinder, Yang, Pyrrha and the rest. And what made Amber gasp a little in surprise, was the fact that his biceps and pectorals were starting to show. He was getting ripped.

Jaune looked back to her, his eyes almost red from his fire as he sucked up his frustration and pride and took a stance ready to fight her.

"Alright, come on Am. Show me what you really got. I'm not losing this time," he grunted, holding the shining sharpness that was Crocea Mors straight at a slant forward and with his free hand to hold the blade close. He was calm and collected, regulating his breath to the best of his ability and feeling the temperate rhythm of his heart equilibrate until it was a pure tone.

"If you go down Jaune. You better get that ass back up and don't quit. You can do this Jaune," Amber told him, as serious as ever with her staff coming to her hand and her dainty and yet seemingly perfect feet scampering across the mat. She could feel a small change in him, a sudden burst of perseverance and determination. But that didn't mean she was going to let him disarm her at all; she was going to put him on his ass and he was going to get back up, or she'd make him stay there.

'Don't you dare give up now ass. You can do this. I know you can.'

She came at him, with all strength and speed, flooring it to him with her staff like the lance of Neptune Vasilias, with her yellow eyes ablaze with her vigor. With a thrust she lunged at his midsection but within an instant Jaune exhaled and he moved aside, dodging her and bringing down the clit of Crocea Mors onto the body of her weapon. Amber of course deflected the blow upwards and spun her staff vertically, until the butt of it was at his throat in a menacing strike. No contact was made and before she could breathe Jaune was on her with a step into her shin and the sword up to bat the staff away. His opponent did exactly as planned and backflipped away to create some breathing room for herself, with a kick to his face with her perfect heel.

Jaune staggered back too, until they were a few good feet away from each other and panting a little, but there was no way he was halting the momentum he was building inside of himself. He had to hit her again and actually do some damage; there was no more holding back, no more thinking he was the dork who couldn't kill a simple Ursa. He could fight and now was the time to show just how high his lethality had risen.

With a swift retort he charged, closing the gap in no time and coming at her with a poking strike, but that was far too easy to block. Instead of doing so and no doubt walking into his plan, Amber side stepped and brought her staff to strike at his gut, except Jaune had done a double take and prepared counters for both outcomes.

It took nothing to grab her staff and bring it back around, twisting at her wrists and utterly destroying her stature. She had to break free and quickly, and she did.

Amber kicked off against the floor and fled before he could perform a counter swing. Jaune still did and she met his slash with her staff, breaking it off with a parry but Jaune's fist was active and came at her arm, punching her in her bicep and again striking through her stature. He was getting confident, finally.

The half maiden hod no choice but to smile through the pain of a shaking muscle in the second she had. He was about to do it, to disarm her, she could feel it.

"Come on Jaune! Hit me again honey!" She shouted as he came at her again, not with a furious look on his golden face, but with a cool smile that told her he was completely comfortable and he was having the most fun he'd had in a long time. That this was exhilarating and he liked it. Jaune liked fighting, because it was making him so much better. Amber, was making him so much better.

The blonde did hit her again, he swung Crocea Mors defiantly with both hand clutching the hilt with an even brighter spark in his blue hued eyes. He was coming for her and he was proud, his heart pounding at the same rate it had the day he first shared Cinder's aura.

Although he hit nothing but Amber's staff he made her stagger and came right back at her with a leap and an over arcing swing that knocked the notched body again. She grunted and knew she had to change the pace again, keep him on his toes and now that he was on his offensive, all she had were her dainty feet. They had to be used, and she did indeed put them to use.

On his next horizontal slash, she bent over herself, her back arching and her feet coming up to knock his hands, and she did, hitting them up. It gave her time to rebalance herself and come for a final blow to his ribs, almost reluctantly but what she was not expecting was his speed. For Crocea Mors was already swinging around his back and coming back to his center, to collide with Amber's staff in a lock, and Jaune was smiling more so than ever.

Because he had won or was about to.

Jaune Arc, the blonde paladin finally feeling deserving of the name grabbed the head of Amber's staff and with a final spin of his blade, grappled the thing from her hands. Her staff flew across the space and hit the floor, while Crocea Mors remained resolute in his weighty hands. He had beaten her, disarmed her and he was finally a winner at something.

Amber did nothing but smiled. "You did it," she said, a massive grin on her beautiful face. "You disarmed me, well done Jaune," Amber followed, closing the gap completely and putting her hands on his shoulders.

With almsot tears in his eyes Jaune went one step further than shoulder hands. He took er in close and wrapped his amround around her top half, around her collar bone and held her close in a warm and panting hug, his breath rapid and his heart still racing however so calm. "Thank you so much Amber, thank you," he spoke softly and muffled by the strap of her sports bra as he held his mouth on her shoulder, not exactly kissing her there but covering his lips. He was actually exhausted and he could feel the burn consume his muscles and bones.

She sat him down soon after, feeling the strain on his arms and legs, taking the sword from him and collecting the weapons and pulling out the locker keys for the changing rooms. They were totally done for the day, she could tell Jaune was more beat than ever before. It was probably one of the most intense sessions he'd gone through in his life.

But Amber had documented his every move, all of him, how amazing he'd been. She had been taking note of all of it, his attitude, his respect for her, his observation of her own skills and even her body. Of course she'd noticed how his eyes were always roaming around her even when they were not in stance. Just the same as hers had been looking all over him, partly to see why Mercury and Cinder found him attractive and why they had asked her to teach him for a day, to inspect what promise he had organically.

There was nothing special about Jaune, not at all, he was fairly average in build, not even ripped to the point that Amber usually liked her men; his biceps weren't wanting to bust out of his shirts and his abs were very flat, his frame an all around skinny construction. But his hair was certainly magnificent, and his eyes beautiful, his lips pretty and his hands looking soft, the kind that Amber could see Cinder wanting to be all over her legs and her pearl. She could imagine how perfect Jaune's hands would feel around Mercury too, empathising the splendor of a hand job from him.

She was, curious to say the least, but also finding herself wanting more from him. There was a thought in her mind, and she was willing to follow it through, but for that she needed him in the locker room, and just a few minutes.

"Jaune, come on, time to go get changed, then we get back to the apartment and you can relax. You've earned it," Amber sang, pooling their weapons into the bag and tossing him his locker key. He was tired, but also fired up, enough to get changed and return home. Hopefully, there was take out.

They were fairly quiet in the locker room, and it was almost completely empty save not for one rather large man who was enjoying the sauna of the dojo, it promoted clarity and an emphasis on secreting impurities of the body. But he soon disappeared and Jaune and Amber were left alone again, in the relative silence of the changing and locker rooms. The half maiden was flushed, the heat from the showers, the sauna, and the almost confined spaces getting to her and making her hot, in her chest as she removed her sports bra in the middle of the locker room.

Jaune turned at that very moment, his eyes slightly tired, but soon popping when he saw Amber's back uncovered by the fabric. He turned to frantically away so as not to see any of her that he slammed his head into the lockers, with a loud thud that grabbed the girl's attention.

Amber turned, her chest completely naked to see Jaune's face in the door of his locker and his training shorts a little loose as he was taking them off to change back into his normal jeans. He had briefs on under them, and as she looked him over, the training shorts fell around his feeble ankles, his legs barely toned and with hairs scattered over them from puberty. She'd have to change that later, and Amber was sure Mercury would love to shave Jaune's legs.

The half maiden let out a stiff and short giggle, her beautiful breasts bouncing a little as she chuckled. He was cute, still a small degree of moronic, but he was cute, and sweet, and Amber could certainly tell how and why Cinder had fallen for him. In fact the flush atop her breasts was spreading, until Amber found herself blushing as she thought of Cinder and of Jaune, a small trace of her other half's aura and soul inside her. It was Cinder's love for Jaune wrapping around her heart and tugging it towards the bashful and idiotic blonde paladin.

It was as if Cinder was there, looking at them and whispering in Amber's ear. 'Can you see why I like him? Why he's cute and kind and a breath of fresh air? I know he's silly and clumsy but he's cute and he's a real gentleman' Amber could imagine Cinder saying with such a polar smile on her elegant face. Amber could see it all, and decided she was going to go for it, indulge her inner thoughts and plan, he deserved it, for trying not to look.

"Hey, Jaune, it's okay, you can look you know," she voiced behind him, with flushed orbs of soft and tanned flesh and rosy cheeks from the thought of what she was going to do. She walked a little closer towards him, with his back still turned from her and his face buried in the locker as she covered her lower bust with her arms, feeling a very acute chill. If anything all they did was support her breasts and make them look more round and fuller while naked. "Jaune, I don't mind really, you can look."

The blonde still did not turn his head, even as she placed her cool and gentle palm on his bare shoulder, another on his thigh. All he did was flinch slightly as his blood came to a heated degree and his brow sweating profusely. "Amber, I can't, you and Cinder, and that's okay," Jaune edged out as his face ran red and his blood nearly boiled. He was so nervous, if anything more so than that fately and amazing airship ride with Cinder. Amber was so much different to Cinder, she was, functional in a way, and had such a swagger about her. She was far more dominant than Jaune and he was struggling to engage. But her hands moved over him, sensing his frozen mind.

"Hey, hey, Jaune, it's okay. Just look will ya?" She asked him softly, putting all her strength to him and flipping him around until his back was against the lockers, and his face was aimed at hers, and Jaune could see her. He saw all of her, her soft complexion and the little beauty spot she had on her right cheek, her glowing yellow eyes and her chocolate brown hair with her superb lips. Her cute, button nose and then down to her strong shoulder like handlebars. Her sloping chest that became her full boobs, her rounded and perfectly weighted boobs that were one of the most gorgeous pairs Jaune had ever seen; only the second he'd seen that they were not inside of a computer or scroll screen. But Jaune was not keeping track of a number of breasts he'd seen, and that mattered were whose they were. "Not so hard was it?" Amber asked with her iconic swagger, her laid back air of confidence through life experience.

She took another half step closer to him, really pushing him back and her hand sweeping up his right thigh, higher and higher as she looked at him almost giggling at how they were both blushing and masquerading as mild fools. His shorts were still around his weak ankles but Amber didn't care, it made it easy for her to slide her hand upward some more, and then slip it into his briefs, taking hold of Jaune's growing cock and gripping it softly, feeling his inches and girth.

The blushing blonde wasn't incredibly big, as Amber tugged and stroked at him for a few seconds, getting him as hard as she could, even stroking at his perky balls. She took another step forward, pushing her lips into his, and he lowered all barriers, letting her hands and aura run free. Jaune's underwear fell to the floor and the seven inches of his cock stood hard and at attention, the head almost shining from how well cleaned it was, and his balls tight and close to his curved shaft. While it may not have been the biggest cock, it was certainly one of the most quaint and beautiful member's Amber had seen, it made her all the more open and wanting to make it pop.

Fingers were wetted by her mouth and she ran a moist fingertip over Jaune's slit, making his curved and elegant cock tingle and sing with pleasure, a sharp kind that sent a small wave over him and sending him reeling. Her hand around his shaft was already a welcome feeling, and Jaune could not help the auble gasp escape his trembling mouth as she rubbed her finger and thumb around his small opening. She was humming, a low tone that came through her closed smile as she looked down at his pretty cock and spat a little to wet it, a moist stroking was always more pleasurable than something boring and dry, and she was not prepared to suckle on it just yet.

Still he was reeling, almost in shock of how confident she was to simply stand there with her chest completely uncovered and her hand grasping, tugging and stroking his luscious prick, working the wetness all over the inches. It was one of the most pleasurable strokes Jaune has experienced and he was receiving it in the middle of the training dojo's locker room. Amber was smiling the entire time, of course she was, she was having her fun in just being her dominant self. She wondered if Cinder would have done this, in a locker room.

"Jaune, I have to say buddy, I never expected you be packing this beautiful a cock," Amber called, like a siren, her eyes slightly blazing with the maiden's flame and her mouth a little wet too as she stroked the cock more and more. Her pace quickened and her gasp tightened a little as she stood higher and kissed him more. He moved with her this time, pushing his mouth into hers and getting his reluctant and respectful hands involved, one on her side, the other around her firm rear in her booty shorts that she was sporting for the sparring session, which had been dignified as an outstanding success.

Amber stroked it even more, as if she was becoming slowly obsessed and mesmerised by the shaft, but she simply wanted to see Jaune climax, and shoot a wad of cum across the floor before they left. The next time she would hold his cock, she would take it in her mouth, now that she knew what exactly Cinder and Mercury were sharing. "Maybe next time I get my hands on this cock of yours I'll get a little more than my hand around it," Amber seduced again and they kissed passionately as Jaune felt his stiff member twitch, and before he could say anything or stop himself, he climaxed and a load of warm and thick cum shot out all over the floor of the locker room.

"Now that's what I was looking for," Amber smiled. "And we should get changed to get back, or they'll be wondering what's happened to us," she spoke softly, still gently stroking his cock out until the end and then returning it safely inside his underwear. Finished, and still flushed in her chest and face, Amber planted a really soft and loving peck on Jaune's cheek and he returned by taking her wrist and pulling her back in for a longer, more heated exchange of the lips, pouring his thanks, his gratitude, and all the arousal he'd gained from looking her all over all morning into the kiss.

Meanwhile…

It was cold to Cinder, despite her being in bed with the sheets covering her body up to her chin, and despite her wearing Jaune's onesie again. Her head was pounding once more from all the swirling voices, the screaming and the sounds of burning all around her. It was the end of the morning, just approaching twelve and she was still in her bed, with the feeling of the old witch's fingernails crawling up her legs in the middle of her hysterical sleep. It was hardly sleep anyway, she was wide awake on the other side, in her nightmare.

It was a place she frequented, more so over the past week since Amber had been resurrected, now Cinder was really feeling the strain of the screaming voices and the constant repeating of Salem asking her to kill them all. The bags under Cinder's eyes were the heaviest, so much so that Roman had practically confined her to the bedroom so that she would have to sleep until Amber and Jaune returned.

She was always in the same place. Quite literally, it was hell. Hell, where she was years ago upon being recruited by Salem only this time she was there as the witch's captive and the rest of her cohabitants were there too. Jaune, Merc, Roman and now Amber, only they were chained and bound, helpless and at Cinder's mercy, as the half maiden was always holding one of her glass blades and her captor was behind her, on her throne and lavishly displaying her power by controlling Cinder as she used to.

'Kindly, Cinder, would you slit the throat of the ginger one?' Salem always asked. Kill Roman by slitting his throat slowly and make him die slowly and in so much pain. 'Next, kindly would you dismember the handicap? Cut him to pieces.' The witch instructed next.

And Cinder, completely and utterly helpless to resist, would always walk behind Roman first, holding up his head as Jaune, Merc and Amber would all be bawling with tears looking at it. Even Cinder would be weeping, not wanting at all do it, but unable to resist the power of Salem's control. She would always slit Roman's throat and kick him over so that he drowned on his own blood gushing over his neck and the floor, dying as slow as he could and in the worst kind of pain the way through and Salem would be smiling the entire time. Mercury was next.

Cinder would slash his legs off, not at the knee as his father had, bit at the hip, cutting the rest of them off and forcing him to scream the worst she'd ever heard, blood all over him and before he passed out and ultimately died from the blood loss, she'd take his arms from him and let him pass. He always died screaming.

Usually, the terrified half maiden would always wake up before her mind controller would make her put the other two, her closest mates to death, but she was deep in her disturbed slumber this time and as she bore over the blonde and the other half maiden, her eyes dull and empty as there was almost nothing left of her. Cinder herself was sobbing, her hands and body bloodied from the other two deaths, murders and her fingers trembling as the witch laughed behind her.

'Kindly, would you behead your blonde lover, and then violently stab the other maiden, Cinder,' Salem ordered her and before anything the dream world slipped from existence and she woke up violently into the single bedroom in the dark with the curtains drawn.

Cinder was awake, screaming and sweating, her hair messy and her eyes ablaze with terror from the horrifying dream. She was awake, before she could have killed Jaune and Amber inside the nightmare but she was panting and void of breath. All she could see was the looks on their faces, on Roman's and Merc's face as they lay dead in front of her and her two closest lovers, and then the wide eyes with tears falling down them of Jaune and Amber. Rapidly the half maiden, as she began to sob, could tell it was the worst dream she'd had thus far, and that it could certainly get a hell of a lot worse.

What was the worst fact of life to Cinder at the singular moment, as the tall and dapper dust salesman Roman opened the door with a knock, was that, while it may have been only dreams, Salem was still out there. She was alive and most definitely planning something for the obsidian haired half maiden and her little band of lovers. Before she could dwell on it, Roman was in the room and he saw her sitting on the edge of the mattress, with the sheets around her and her amber eyes autonomously streaking out tears. He took her in a warm embrace, no kiss, just an embrace to stabilise her until he could get some loving and emotional back up in the form of the other half of the maiden and the blonde paladin.

They would all help the feeble and broken reformed mastermind, who was cracking at the seams more so than ever. Roman wondered just what was going on with her.

On the other side of the world…

The Aunts, Piper and Sharp Chóma, were collectively two of the most joyous and perfect women all sixteen of the other girls had ever met when Pyrrha introduced them, holding her, essentially parents at their backs and smiling with a bubbliness that had never been so obvious before. She looked the most happy she ever had, to facilitate the meeting between her Aunts, the two women who cared for her and helped her along her transition, to the sixteen women she loved more than life itself. It was amazing, such a heart warming sensation and tingling feeling all over the redheaded champion.

Pyrrha looked beautiful, in her band tee and short shorts because the weather had blasted forth another day of insatiable heat and beautiful sun. And her Aunts were very much in same getup; band shirts and jeans. The jeans were mildly because the two women were just a little large, more filled than some people in Vale and even Mistral, not the usual slim and tight skinny frame, but the jolly and curvy, voluptuous frames that told the girls that these women were a little old and loved life, loved each other.

Both women looked beautiful regardless and Yang, Coco, Winter, Velvet, The Twins, and Ruby were all looking particularly excited for their showing of the anticipated performance.

"Ladies!" Pyrrha beamed, unable to contain her excitement over just introducing her guardian angels to her current angels. "Please, allow me to introduce, Piper Chóma, my father's sister and one of the best baker of everything this side of the world!" The redhead babbled, still overwhelmed and smiling like the six foot and two dork she secretly was. Nora was internally screaming over how cute her oldest girlfriend was. This was her first time meeting those responsible for Pyrrha being the true self she was and all she wanted to was kiss them, for supporting the redhead and helping her be herself, go to Beacon, and be with Nora.

"And this, is Sharp Chóma, one of the best weaponsmiths in Mistral Central. She can make some of the best weaponry any of you have ever seen!" Again Pyrrha bumbled, just too excited for her own good.

Sharp chuckled, almost explosively jolly as she kissed her niece on the cheek. "Oh please Pyr dear, come on. My weapons aren't that good at all," the older woman modestly tried to cover up, even trying to hide the rather large case in her hand. Yang and Ruby were ogling it with wide and sparkling eyes, wondering what could possible be inside.

The other Aunt, Piper, laughed herself, although rolling her eyes afterward. "Get a grip Sharpy, you know the weapons you make are some of the best. Hell, you made Milo and Akouo when she was in her pre teens for while she was still with Apollo," she piped, nudging her wife in her shoulder as if to tell her to boast a little. They both laughed merrily and Sharp finally drew their attention to the box.

"So, you're all probably wondering what this is huh?" She asked with a smile on her large and tanned face, her lip gloss glowing in the afternoon light of the hotel lobby. They all were of course, Coco, Yang, Winter, Penny and Ciel more than others as Pyrrha rejoined the girls and Nora clinged to her as if she were an anchor, arms clutching one of the redhead's. The large Aunt set the metal case on the floor and opened it slightly, revealing a prosthetic arm of gold and black, with a thicker gauntlet piece around the wrist and measuring only about the length of a forearm, looking brand new and even shining.

They all knew what it was as soon as they saw it, but the blonde buxom dragon could not believe her eyes. It was Celica, or least some version of it. Over the months Winter and Penny had been scribbling down so many different variants of Yang's prosthetic to make it effective in different roles and had reached a short list but as the android over examined the metal piece she found the inner working to be remarkable. It was a work of art, and could be specced on the fly for defense or offense, just what they had envisioned for Yang. Of course it couldn't be apt for every type of fight and as they had learned throughout the morning, they would need a lot of different versions of Celcia for all the different fighters. Sun Wukong for one, whom Ruby and Blake could both agree would definitely not pass up the challenge of Vytal with her boyfriend Neptune. With that kind of duo, Yang's arm should be specced completely differently to give her an edge should she fight them.

But the arm in the case, as Penny examined, looked to be an all-around improvement to the mess that she'd had strapped to her by Winter when she first arrived.

"You're kidding me right? How?" Yang asked, more shocked than anyone and with Pyrrha beside her, her hand finding Yang's organic fingers and interlacing hers and hers as Nora clutched onto her other arm. The blonde was completely blown away and knew that the smiling redhead had some part that had been played in this. Only Pyrrha could have seen the schematics or something like that a relayed a message but to do it so fast. In less than a few days.

Sharp and Piper simply smiled and walked closer to Yang, with wide and mothering eyes. "We, hope you don't mind," Sharp began.

"But Pyr told us a lot about you Yang Xiao Long. About how you lost your arm and about how you've struggled with different ones for most of your life, never having a stable prosthetic," Piper continued, taking the arm piece out of the case and holding it out. Yang herself was speechless, amazed at what was happening and unable to speak, only blush as her heart felt heavy and her chest heaved, her organic fingers holding onto Pyrrha's hand tightly. "So Sharp and eye worked around the clock to make this."

Sharp herself gestured for permission and Yang rolled up the sleeve of her jacket to expose the attached point of her unfeeling arm. It came off to Sharp with ease and she correctly attached the new prosthesis, fastening it with a tiny pocket screw and driver until Yang was comfortable and could move it in all the different ways.

"What made you go for the black and yellow colour scheme?" Blake asked from the other side of the party, where she was holding hands with Weiss and Penny. It had struck her mind because these were Pyrrha's Aunts, and yet the colour of the arm was the meld of Blake and Yang.

Sharp smiled as she flipped one of the small panels of metal on the arm, and the whole thing then flipped like a set of dominoes. All of the metal sheets flipped over and in their place were panels of flesh overly, but it felt different. Yag turned to Pyrrha and let go of her hand, taking it instead with her new prosthetic fingers and her eyes popped.

"My hand… I can-"

"Feel with it? We crafted the flesh overly to be able to feel and respond to outside stimuli. You can feel anything in the world with that new arm dear," Piper told Yang as her eyes were beginning to well up with tears, Pyrrha's too. Before Sharp could explain the colours, the blonde took both her and her wife in a lioness hug with the dragon beginning to mildly sob. She was awash with feeling and not just as she could react to the feeling of everything, the skin of the Aunts, their clothing, Pyrrha's fingers. Yang was heaving inside, her fibre exploding. No one, not ever, had made her something so amazing before; they had given her arm the gift of feeling again.

"Now that does mean you will feel the pain if you damage the arm in any way; slice the flesh, while there's no blood inside, or hit it too hard or if say a Grimm gnaws it off. We know you girls like to live dangerously like our Pyr. And as for the colour scheme. Pyr asked for it herself," Sharp explained, and Pyrrha looked to Blake to give her a passionate smile and a wink.

Most of the girls were welling up themselves, as Yang silently sobbed to Piper, thanking her for the whole while under her breath and feeling the heat of her face with her new hand.

"And don't worry Ms Schnee, we've also constructed it to allow for your own modifications so the schematics for the variants will work fine," Piper added as she patting the dragon's back. No one could even believe it, the whole thing about it. They had made Yang, a woman whom they had never met before, an arm for which she could feel whole again, for the first time since she lost the appendage at no older than six years old.

Yang could not stop crying, the happiest and most grateful tears she had ever cried. Pyrrha and Nora were behind her consoling her and making sure she was okay with the abundance of new information from her hand. Making sure she was adapting to feeling with it again and she was, she was so amazed and so welcome to the new feeling. She just could not stop crying from the happiness.

"T-Thank you," the dragon cried, so overwhelmed by it all. "Just… Thank you both."

Piper and Sharp Chóma both themselves nearly cried, as they took Yang again in their arms, knowing exactly what she had gone through to lose her right arm, and imagining how much it meant, to finally feel again with it after twelve long years of not. They had done good and as they held the little sun dragon, they looked to Pyrrha, who was welling up too and sobbing to herself, and they knew how much she loved Yang and the rest of the girls.

That this, was not just a relationship between seventeen women. It was a family already, and they wanted to do exactly what they had done for Pyrrha. To make it all better.

"Now come on ladies. Time to party until the sun comes back up again tomorrow!" Sharp yelled and they all cheered in unison. It would truly be a night to remember.

Meanwhile…

Cinder finally decided to move herself, to leave the bed and do something with the day even if it was only something small, and it was indeed just small. It was just a shower, warm and soothing, or at least that was what Roman had told her to do while he and Mercury left the apartment for a few minutes to shop for the meal and Amber and Jaune met up with them.

It was almost ten minutes, at the most, and Cinder was under the torrent of warm and steamy water for the whole of them. She soaked her hair and relaxed her muscles, loosening them from the stress and strain of her horrible week of sleep, but still felt not a whole lot better than before. And all in all the shower was pleasant, even more so as the oils and the soaps Roman had spent so lavishly on for himself months ago worked into her flesh and her frame, giving her a scent that would on any normal day turn her on. But she was still holding up a whole world of depression and despair on her back.

All the half maiden could think about was the dreams, the constant night terrors and how they plagued her to no end. When would they ever stop? She already knew that answer and it pained her, even more, when she thought about it. They would only ever stop when the witch was dead.

But she knew all too well that was a possibility that would never come to fruition. If she died, so would Cinder…

She was so tired, laying on her back with the towel around her, her baggy eyes so defeated with it all, until she felt herself slipping in the silence, unable to stay awake anymore in the heat of it all. There was no way she could remain in the limbo anymore it was killing her with every passing day of next to no, or no sleep at all. Cinder could feel it all mellowing out, until her eyes shut and there was utter nothingness for a solid second.

When she came too again, she was there. The witch, bearing over her with her eyes of red and her skin of white, her hand over Cinder's mouth in a second and another holding her nose closed, so that Cinder could not breathe. She was being suffocated and with the weight of the witch on her, she was restrained as well, feeling her airway blocked and her heart race in the fear of it all.

Salem herself, the cosmic anomaly with the white hair and the menacing smile of sharp and barbed teeth as she was elated in feeling the renegade pawn that Cinder was be stifled. She was killing her, so slowly and so intimately and with such a rush of adrenaline because of the tears forming in Cinder's eyes. It was exhilarating. And Cinder was truly dying, she was fitting and doing all she could but Salem had her, had her down and had her suffocating quickly, with the black and pulsating red around the sides of of her vision. It was all fading so fast.

The witch leaned in close, as close as she could without her nose touching Cinder's, as she faded from life and slowly died in her arms.

"I'll make sure to kill him first…. And then I'll kill you with his own sword, my dear… Soon, sooner than you can imagine dear," Salem slithered in a flush, and Cinder woke up.

She woke up coughing, spluttering, as if she had really been dying and slipping at the hands of her past mistress, and felt so violated, as if a dozen hands were still all over her and holding her to the bed, with her lungs slowly accumulating to the flow of air. It was horrid, simply terrifying to her, to be held by Salem again. All she could do was sit up, on the pillows, curl up into a small ball, trying so hard to keep the voices out and to flush the small dream, the nightmare from her mind as fast as she could. But it didn't work. There was the invisible stream of the siren calls all around poor Cinder Fall.

A thousand 'kill yourself', a million more 'kindly, would you kill Jaune? Amber? Roman?' and the surrounding menagerie of screaming and replaying of what she had done to the poor other half of her. To Amber. It still played on her, and she felt so defeated by herself.

What if she made it all stop? Permanently? And saved them all? It kept playing around in her mind, followed by the witch's words.

Salem was going to return, and she was going to kill all five of them. The only thing that Cinder could think of was if she saved them all. By ending her own life, and dying anyway, as Salem wanted her to for betraying her.

The pills were in the cupboard, the top set of them just over the blender in the kitchen area, and there was no one home. It would take less than thirty seconds and Cinder's hands and shoulders were shaking as she kept hearing the voices, the commands, the orders and triggers that were eventually going to wear away at her mental barriers. It would not take much more, until the eventual 'kindly would you' made her snap and instinctively make her follow the command. She would break, and one of them would die. Cinder would not do it.

All it took was eight of them, and Cinder was back in the bedroom, laying on her side with the tears falling onto the floor, feeling it all slipping away. At least Jaune would be safe, at least Amber would be safe, at least Roman would be safe.

She closed her eyes, and let it happen in the precious seconds.

To Be Continued...


	19. Walk This Way

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Rainbow Girls enjoy some intimate time during their gig while Roman races to save Cinder. Salem meets with her entourage and Taiyang receives a visit he never thought he would in his life

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a reupload. Enabler has been removed and replaced with Yang and Glynda

It was chaos, the span of mere touch and go minutes from the bedroom to the storefront, to the car, to the ER, to the ward. And the whole time Amber and Jaune could not stop crying and shouting out her name.

 

Roman was the only one with the least measure of composure in him. He had to keep contained, not to burst out as her pulse dulled and faded away from her as he sped up the car and did not stop for any lights. The ER was a good five minutes away and he knew that she did not a second to spare in her. Not with the dose she took. So Roman was still in his apron and his bowler hat was off his head, he didn’t care how could he? The only thing he could focus on was getting her to the hospital. He had to, he was the only one who could drive and she was dying.

 

Cinder Fall was dying, slowly. The only thing they could do was get her to the ER.

 

The thunder of the guitar and the bass lines clashed with the drums and the roaring vocalists as the production rolled on into the final scene of the first act, with hands on legs and lips colliding as the rock fueled the girls. Pyrrha was already sitting next to her own Aunts with her lips all over Weiss. Glynda was busy with her own hands all over Yang, and vice versa, with Coco and Velvet sitting relatively quiet. It took hardly a large amount of time before they all stood up, just as the songs all linked into the finale before the interval.

 

Pyrrha, Glynda, Weiss, Yang, Coco, Winter and Velvet all left, headed to only one place.

 

They barged into the bathroom stall, Pyrrha, pushed by the eager Weiss with Winter frantically scooting in behind her, slamming her hat on the handle of the stall door, to signal that there was something a little explicit going on inside. With Mistral’s relaxed attitude towards sex and relationships and the fact that it was a rock performance and the theater itself was rife with sexual intimacy, she concluded they wouldn’t be kicked out.

 

It was as if they were all living in paradise, the heat of the Mistral temperature, the haze of the alcohol flying and the sweet scent of pheromones from all the organic endorphins and love in the air. How could they not simply slam themselves into the stall and lose themselves to the lust? It was an impossibility that no one, not Piper, Sharp or any of the other girls could stop. In fact they could hear two more stalls take up occupants either side of the three heavily breathing broads, with their nipples protruding through lacy underwear and lips on lips. 

 

Weiss made out the raspy gasps of proud Glynda, in the same tall to her left with forward Yang and on her left must have been the wincing Velvet, moaning already like the submissive jackrabbit she always was with the warm and heavenly touched Coco. They were all as bad as each other but they had contained it for too long with such intense music and wandering hands inside the atrium. But she had Pyrrha, and her red flowing locks coming loose as she took off her diadem for once and set it neatly around the side of the toilet as Winter came from behind her sister and held her waist with her icy hand, and gripped lusciously at her tender thigh with the other. 

 

Pyrrha herself, chest already flushed as she popped the buttons of her blouse to get it off as fast as she could without ripping the fabric, sat on the seat, her legs spread wide for the heiress to slot herself between. She did indeed, her hand gravitating to Pyrrha’s passive polarity as their auras quickly melded, all three of them. It was like second nature to them all when they slowly drifted to intimacy, they had done it so many times now and in such a heated clump it was automatic. Weiss felt the warm fuzz of her the champion’s glow and Winter too, her freezing, white and minty sensation swallowing her smaller sister whole and creating a cool burning up Pyrrha’s legs from which she moaned. 

 

Finally her blouse came loose as hands from Weiss made contact with her toned thighs, slowly sliding up them as the heiress’s mouth became wide open with a sweet mouth eclipsing from her. Winter’s own fingers had worked their way around the smaller Ice Princess’s breasts and were holding the nipples between thumb and index, making her heated and her core pulse with a fiery wave. 

 

The music from the theater quickened, but Weiss remained resolute, slowly sliding her trembling hands up Pyrrha’s legs as Winter fondled her chest, with the redhead pinching her own nipples too. They were going to do it. They were actually going to have sex in the bathroom like in a smut film. The redhead’s chest was flushed and she was breathing so heavily, pushing herself onto the seat as Weiss remained a little reluctant as Winter held her. She wanted to go full throttle, to press her body against Pyrrha’s and for her taller sister to back up behind her, those beautiful and full breasts to be up against her back, all three of them getting hotter as Weiss’s hand desired to reach for Pyrrha’s pearl and folds under her skirt. 

 

Winter was impatient herself, a seductive smile on her lips as she saw Pyrrha breathe with her ample bust practically floating with every inhalation. They were so full, her breasts, almost as big as Winter’s or Glynda’s and of course because of that, all of the girls were mesmerized by them.

 

Neo certainly always was and had been since the Summer, always playing with and suckling on the champion’s perfect areolas when they came out and the ice cream lady wanted to please the redhead. Ruby was taken with them too, but with so many beautiful women with so many chests, the huntress was taken with all of them.

 

But Pyrrha’s breasts were near perfect, and not just because the rest of her was. Not just because of her shoulders, her beautiful arms, and her curves, abs, thighs and the way they were formed, the way they sloped and curved and were so pleasant to cup and hold. And Weiss did indeed want to cup them, and her elder sister could tell from her trembling hands and bitten lips. Pyrrha was spreading herself out, skirt pulled up and legs wide, her chest flowing out as her breasts were laid bare for the sisters, most of her clothing shed on the floor. But Weiss was not leaning in, she was stationary almost, holding herself up with hands on the stall and with Winter groping her own ample chest. She was fuller than most imagined due to binding herself for battle and every day.

 

Pyrrha loved them, and so did Winter, particularly, as she often would feel them, slightly judging and complimenting their form and feeling. How her little sister had developed a pair of the most elegant breasts she’d seen. It made the ice princess squirm often, and even climax just from the words.

 

“Weiss, little sister, I believe Pyrrha wants you to pleasure her,” Winter whispered into her little snowflake’s ear, she wanted to see just how much Weiss could be wound up before she took all of Pyrrha’s pleading looks. The redhead was almost melting with her fiery blood hitting the cool air from the porcelain of the bathroom tiles. 

 

They could even hear Yang get to work on Ruby next door. The reaper’s soft moans hitting the walls as her blonde dragon of a sister liked over her sweet folds. 

 

“Look at her snowflake. Pyrrha’s practically desperate for you to touch her darling, she wants your hands on her chest, and mine between her legs,” Winter slithered again in Weiss’s ear, her hands now moving down her slightly curvy and heated frame, removing the rest of her clothing, mildly. Her top first, and then just opening the button and downing the firm zipper of her skinny jeans. The smaller heiress’s attire was fairly rebellious compared to her normal ensemble and the dress she’d bought the night before. But she looked beautiful in her punkish aura. Pyrrha wanted it too. She was very prepared now to reach up and pull Weiss down on top of her, to have her hands on her breasts and for Winter to lick both their dripping cunts, but she was too flushed, and too submissive. She simply sat there, on her throne of sorts and panted for the ice princess to pounce on her.

 

In the end, Pyrrha could not contain her pulsating vibes of lust any longer, it was a misty haze that clouded he senses, like a drug or alcohol. There had been some of that, just one or two drinks, slithering around her brain, dulling her usually reserved disposition and making her melt outward from herself as she sat on the seat of white. Her blouse was left open, her bra apart from the front and her bountiful orbs of slightly tanned flesh sloping on her perfect torso. How could anyone keep their hands off of her?

 

It was simple to Weiss when Pyrrha finally spoke, much to Winter’s insatiable lust and devilish icicle eyes. 

 

“Weiss,” Pyrrha breathed, her breath cloudy and her nipples perky as her chest rose slightly. “Weiss please, fuck me,” she sang and Weiss relented.

 

The smaller heiress, with her chest bare and red with her top on the floor and her jeans practically coming off of her, slipping down her peachy rear as Winter dragged them to spank her, fell on Pyrrha’s her hands on the champion’s chest and their lips colliding. They were kissing and hands were travelling with all intensity as the baseline from the atrium picked up again and the fluid riffs wrapped around them in a pulse and beat that was old. It was sending them all back to when the older generation were that young. Going to gigs and concerts in the fields and having more sex than ever, gulping down the summer booze and the golden water of alcohol that dulled the senses and created the air of blissful euphoria. When no one cared about anything because there was peace and the world was foreign to the idea of perpetual conflict. At least in the region of Mistral and her stunning vistas and serene views of the briny abyss. 

 

With words ringing in her ears Weiss continued to lavish the panting champion with her icy lips and frosty tipped chest making sweet contact with Pyrrha’s. Nipples held each other as the girls did too, Winter walking around the side and gripping lovingly onto Weiss’s firm rear. Her freehand sinking to Pyrrha’s thigh and sliding up and up, while her little sister took the champion’s upper lips, biting them and lavishing them, Winter would take the lower ones. 

 

And take them she did.

 

Two fingers of the taller and more developed Schnee entered the spooling wetness that was Pyrrha’s lower lips, her thumb already placed on the hooded pearl of the redhead, making her gasp. Her breath hitched with a mighty thumb in her chest as Winter smiled and slowly worked her fingers in a stroking pattern, fully pleasing Pyrrha’s inner walls as Weiss took care of her exterior. The pulse of the bassline slithered into all three of them, mixing with the euphoria that melded through all three bathroom stalls. From the three in the middle, Yang and little sis and Coco with Velvet on the opposite sides of their cubicle. They were so fluid, so made of liquid and love as Weiss pressed her body against the taller redhead, both of them so full of heat that they were gasping almost as much as they were kissing, the small schnee applying ample amounts of pressure to her lover’s chest and with Winter around the side. Her finger felt sublime, sheathed inside Pyrrha and lavishing her with moans aplenty and such a feeling of warm and yet cold ecstasy. 

 

Winter’s touch was always unique; a different amount of icy cold to lustful warm every time depending on how Winter herself was feeling. And Pyrrha had an idea, on how to attune her lovers frosty touch as she still kissed Weiss and held her firm rear in one hand. With the free fingers the redhead slipping them down Winter’s jeans, past the button and fly and into her lacy underwear, feeling the extreme moisture she had been releasing from her shaven cunt over the course of the bathroom antics.

 

The student teacher was so wet, more than a lot of times Pyrrha had had the chance to feel down there. But Winter’s womanhood also felt so smooth, so perfect, she had a perfect cunt. “Winter, can I?” Pyrrha asked, on a break from kissing Weiss as she herself slipped her hand down to join Winter’s at her folds.

 

As she asked, Weiss smiled and tried so desperately to pull the champion’s attention back to herself, by slowly slipping off of her and removing her own hand, only to spread Pyrrha’s legs further apart. Her lips were salivating as Winter above her could not stifle the sharp gasp that left her lips at Pyrrha’s wanton look of pleading. She wanted to feel inside the teacher as she was being felt. And Pyrrha could see that Winter was struggling. Struggling to maintain her hold on her own lust, on her dominance when all she was wanting to do was to taking Pyrrha rough and wild as Weiss did what she was about to, to slide her perfect and cool tongue over Pyrrha’s womanhood and pearl, which had came out of the petite hood.

 

They could all not control themselves. As Weiss slipping out her tongue, licking and lapping up the juices of the dripping folds of the flawless champion along her sister’s knuckles, only to end at the precious pearl, she would send Pyrrha overboard. The redhead could hardly keep composure, her hand moving to hold the back of the smaller Schnee’s head as she licked at her folds. The second hand stood fast and remained at Winter’s luscious and perfect cunt, waiting for permission to begin her work, to pleasure the tall and busty teacher.

 

“Winter,” Pyrrha moaned, purring louder as Weiss ran her well textured and petite tongue over her warm pearl again, sending shockwaves all throughout Pyrrha’s body. She wanted so much for Winter to feel some of this too, for her aura to be taken over by the others. “Winter please join us, let’s just live for one night before we leave,” Pyrrha beckoned, and Winter herself finally relented her womanhood, popping her button and letting her pants fall, but her underwear remained.

 

She leaned in, kissing Pyrrha so sweetly, while also picking up the pace of her fingers stroking the inner walls of the redhead, making Weiss increase her activities, her tongue flicking rapidly over Pyrrha’s pearl. The champion almost screamed, in pure pleasure with her legs turning to jelly and her cunt singing sweet songs of desire and more of this treatment. She was being pleasured simultaneously by both Weiss and Winter Schnee. How was so lucky as thiss be subject to this? She could not comprehend it, neither could Winter, as she sensed the champion’s thoughts, her glacier aura dancing with the autumn coloured thatw as Pyrrha’s. None of them could comprehend how lucky they had become to be in the middle of not just the night, but their lives.

 

Soon they would be on yet another plane, only hours away, and soaring through the skies to the snowed under lodges of the Atlas Mountain Range, at the base of Mount Kovic. For now, both sisters are hand and tongue over the uncoothed pearl and salivating womanly folds of the heated and flushed champion, and both Schnees were smiling, as was the redhead. They could hear the two sisters next to them too, the blonde most probably knuckle deep with three or so fingers into little Ruby’s pulsing rose. 

 

The somewhat proud teacher sung, her face ablaze with blush as Yang was whispering in her as she did when they shared a moment like this. The blonde herself was fully clothed, she would not partake, but she would gladly touch the tall Glynda until she popped from the pressure of her budding folds. And she loved it, the whole difference of being touched by Yang, for once. 

 

“Ah! Yang!” The reeling Glynda pleaded pleaded from inside the second stall, her rose absolutely pulsating betwixt her legs and her pearl bobbing, pleading as the dragon’s thumb caressed it so precisely. Her other fingers were spent pleasuring the little rose that was so beautifully opened, all for Yang at her touch as she whispered and nibbled lovingly on Glynda’s ear. “Yang, it feels so good, your touch Yang, ah!” The mature blonde whimpered again and again as her entrance was sweetly filled by Yang’s fingers, her pearl continuing to be stroked as the fingering ran its course. 

 

As she did it, Yang smiled sweetly, not in a dominant way as she would with Blake or with Nora or the Twins, but a smile of pure sugar; it told that she was loving how warm Glynda was feeling and how much pleasure she was receiving. Not too much as to overload her with such euphoria that would ruin it all and make the little darling cum too fast. Not too much pressure as to simply make Glynda pop with almost violent climax or make her hurt. Yang applied the prefect touch that made her the usually dominant teacher sing with elation at how her rose was stuffed with fingers and how her pearl was soothingly caressed. It was just right.

 

“You like it when I touch your special place Glynda?” Yang asked in but a whisper. It was amazing that the taller blonde could hear over the sound of her own heart, her own moans and those of Pyrrha and Winter in the cubicle next door. What was even more amazing was that the authorities had not cleared them out already. But this was Mistral. And that was all anyone needed to know in reality. 

 

“Am I going too fast? Too hard? Tell me Glynd, I gotta make it perfect,” Yang whispered again, relenting a little on all activity as her submissive blonde professional wailed a little from the explosive pleasure from between her legs. It had actually been a long while since Yang had pleasured her, not since Penny, Ciel and Neon had joined the girls has Yang touched her in the spot. She had to make sure it was perfect, that it was the most sublime of experiences and that when Glynda finally did climax, which could not possibly be that far away, Yang had to make sure the orgasm was just right, the most it could possibly be. The teacher deserved it, and the blonde dragon wanted so much to make sure she delivered. 

 

Upon Glynda’s mild wince, the dragon swapped her fingers. With three remaining inside her dear sibling, her other hand lifted upwards, over her sub’s left leg, with two more fingers there to stroke her beautiful clit, her pearl, and make every fibre of the stern and yet melting professional’s body blossom. Glynda held Yang’s left hand; the one that was tasking itself to stroke the rose’s pearl, to send her flying into orgasm and as Yang increased her efforts, according to the teacher’s breathing, the reaper moaned gloriously.

 

“Yang!” Glynda sang as the dragon warmed her in sexual embrace and lavished her rose with attention and fingers. “Yang it feels so good! Oh dust! I’m gonna!” She was so loud, and her sweet rose already pulsing and convulsing around Yang’s fingers as she stopped their movement and simply stroked her girlfriend’s inner walls with love. It was all just right, and it made Yang smile all the more when she realised that her dear teacher was cumming into her hand. She could also hear Coco and Velvet both doing the same over Pyrrha’s cubicle, the redhead and the Schnees all moaning melodically like a sexed up choir of beautiful bodies.

 

Glynda did of course climax, her rose spewing moisture and wetness all over Yang’s fingers and into her hand as the blonde took her lips and placed them firmly onto her girlfriend’s neck, biting down a little and applying ample pressure with her teeth and mouth. Marking all the girls was one of Yang’s favourite things to accomplish, and to do so as tall Glynda orgasmed, it was just as euphoric for the dragon.

 

Again did the struggling and reduced professional call her dragon’s name, so blissfully and in Glynda’s silky smooth and low pitched voice, so loudly Yang thought for sure it would set Winter off next door. Glynda’s moans usually went hand in hand with the elder Schnee’s whenever all the girls had sex, Weiss and Ruby had the small and oblivious power to make the specialist unravel and soak her own cutn and thighs without even touching her, but Glynda could do it expertly. 

 

Nothing came from the cubicle next door, until Yang continued touching Glynda, slightly too soon and hit the perfect spot inside of her. 

 

“Yang?! Ah!” She squealed, and soon came all over again, her rose almost popping into squirting, with wetness seeping all over Yang’s hands, that was when Winter followed suit. 

 

The taller Schnee’s folds convulsed all around Pyrrha’s fingers, and wetness seeped through into the champion’s hand, which in turn set her off herself. It was not long until every girl near enough in the three cubicles were wailing and all attaining their orgasms all at once, singing in beautiful harmony as they did. Yang had to giggle as she took care of her own partner, pulling up her panties and tattered jeans. The sounds of the other girls too made Yang smile, beautifully with her perfectly white teeth to match her mysterious and unique eyes as she gleamed. 

 

Glynda quaintly beckoned her taller dragon of a student and girlfriend closer and cupped her puffy cheeks, rather unlike the stern woman in a lot of ways, but regardless, just blissfully gleeful, Glynda leaned in and up and kissed Yang so sweetly. It was unlike every other kiss that the woman had given or that Yang had received from her usually dominant partner. It was cute, and sweet and yet casual, as if the middle aged woman had been giving them to Yang for years. Glynda herself rarely gave the kisses to Yang. But it was perfect.

 

“Glynd, are ya okay?” Yang asked as she grabbed her jacket from the floor and twisted her new robotic arm again, working out all the kinks and admiring how well it had performed. The best part was that finally she could feel every inch of of her girlfriends, just that Glynda was the first, the first lover the new fingers had touched. “You… Never really kiss me like that.”

 

“That’s because right now, I’m the most happy I’ve ever been Yang!” Glynda cheered, suddenly filled with glee and a newfound cheer cheer. “I mean we’re on vacation, Vytal is waiting for us when we get back, and I’m in love with sixteen of the most beautiful women that ever lived! Why wouldn’t I be happy?!” She exclaimed, as happy as she ever had been. After all, to her mind, this was normal life, and she was just living, day by day, with those she loved.

 

If only any of them knew, anything at all, far across the world, on a continent that looked, from orbit, like a mighty dragon.

 

Meanwhile…

 

In a continent far across the seas and situated in a land where no man or faunus ever travelled, where Grimm roamed as the majority populace and the only ruler was long thought dead, only known by few, they convened. The Cult of Salem. And they sat in order, minus their youngest member, Cinder Fall.

 

Instead, she lay in a hospital bad, far away.

 

But the Cult still sat, waiting, with the three men patiently stationed in order of strategy. The most professional of the three at the back, with his scroll in hand and his moustache being twirled between his finger and thumb. He was an academic, with his weapon sheathed in the scabbard and obscured by his long coat of brown with golden accents. This man was an entrepreneur, a businessman and a doctor at that, by the name of Watts. 

 

Next to him, closer to the apparent head of the table was a monster of a man, massive in size and bulk and looking like a cross between a personified hog and bear, with hands that could probably cave in the head of the man parallel with him. Hazel, his name and the other men at the table knew well not to anger him or antagonise him, for they hadn’t already. The man looked like his body and soul were littered in scars and, to the surprise of many, he did not carry a weapon on him. Merely, his gigantic fists, which were conceal as he folded his arms and kept them as such in the silence of the meeting.

 

The last man, a rather husky looking thing with his face almost coming off of his skull and his posture resembling more of a monkey in a chair than Sun Wukong herself, his throat long and rather developed as he chuckled to himself. The broken silence was enough to antagonise both Watts and Hazel but then steadied killing the man for now, for Salem would seen join them, in the hall of the Dragon Land infested and continuing to birth Grimm. Tyrian was his wretched name and he suited the erratic spelling of it with the way he skulked about Remnant like a mongrel pup. Hated by everyone and judged by all who knew his insane nature and hellbent philosophy of ‘an eye for an eye’. 

 

“Would you please, Tyrian. Sit. Down?” Dr Watts urged his ‘colleague’ who was still crouched over the chair instead of actually sitting in it. It was driving both gentlemen as crazy as Tyrian was, him just squatting in the bone seat like an ape or, apparent, lunatic.

 

Tyrian simply cackled all the more, refusing Watts plea for him to sit his boney bottom onto the flat of the chair. “Watts the matter Watts? Don’t like how I sit?” The maniac laughed, shooting daggers from his twisted eyes over the table at the professional. In fact Watts was the only subtle antagonist in the room, most of the world believing him to be nothing more than the simple CEO of Watts Industries, the energy provider to most of the entire world’s supply of energy. Clean and efficient and completely and unscrupulous evil to his core.

 

Hazel, unfolding his brutish arms, slammed his fist on the table, silencing the pair of them. “You’re both lucky The Lady needs all three of us or I’d probably bash both your skulls in right now,” he grunted, his brutish vocals almost shaking the chandeliers. “You two knows these fists are like vampires once I get started, so don’t test me.”

 

The apish Tyrian chuckled profusely at that, massive laughs coming from his heaving gut. “Oh please, I’d salivate to see you try and outmatch me Hazel,” he teased with his maniacal smile and yellow and disturbed teeth. He really was like an ape, a malformation, an abnormality, but of course, that was what Salem attracted to her company, nothing but the cast aside and the different, the greedy and the malleable. Dregs of human and faunus kind when she pleased. Hidden in the nooks and crannies of society that she would topple. If plans proceeded accordingly.

 

At the moment, the grand doors of the hall flew open and in she flew, not walking, but seemingly gliding over the floor, the bottom of her dress and figure wispy and swept up and away in a black fog and mist. She was tall, of course, and elegant, regal in most respects with her white or greyed hair in the split apart limbs that resembled heavily imagery of the Winter Maiden. Her eyes were as they always were, how they were in Cinder’s nightly visits and how they were when she haunted Ozpin, her fated double and rival and as red as they were the day she became what she was, the Queen of all Grimm.

 

“Please, Gentlemen, be seated, and compose yourselves before me,” she commanded with her fist clutching at air as she gliding over the reflecting floor to her seat and perched herself on it. She was like iron, like a work of metal art. So elegant and able to shape herself into whatever she saw fit with the correct circumstances, but she was as hard and as cast as the metal itself. And she demanded absolute loyalty and submission before her, or she would rip them all into pieces. 

 

Her fist, glowed a dark purple, almost black like a void. 

 

Hazel folded his arms once more and regulated his breathing to calm himself as Tyrian remained in the same stature as before Salem walked in, with Dr Watts sheathing his scroll to look at his Lady. They were all attentive and she had their undivided attention in her cast iron grasp with her dark magic subsiding. She was a Witch and a Queen.

 

“Gentlemen, I trust you are all progressing well with the plan?” Salem asked, her voice cold as ice, more glacier like than even the Schnees. It had such a seductive and siren calling chill to it, that even the purest of men could be poised and twisted by it. It was perhaps one of the more deadly weapons in her arsenal. “Dr Watts, I trust your company is fully backing Sturm Schnee’s bid to role General Ironwood into Ozpin’s court?” She asked, her whole attention and whatever she had that could have been considered aura focused in on Dr Watts sitting comfortably at what was the foot of their table. If Cinder were not dead, she’d be sitting parallel to him, silent, like the obedient servant she was to the Witch Queen.

 

The poised and professional billionaire soon coughed up the correct amount of ego to deliver his report to her. Vytal had been called and he was swinging his market power along with that of the Schnee Dust Company controlled by Sturm Schnee to push Ozpin into hosting it. However almost all of the other academies were withholding their approval and willingness to enter due to the fact that the apparent threat represented by Cinder Fall was not reported to have been eradicated. Simply put they were unsure it was safe again to even commence with Vytal.

 

Watts coughed, hyping himself up for how he had been dealing with Ironwood, and how he and Sturm were silently pushing Atlas into coordination with Beacon. Shade and Haven would follow suit if James followed Ozpin. 

 

“With pressure from Watt Industries and the Schnee Dust Company, General Ironwood should be announcing that Atlas Academy will be entering the Vytal Tournament any day now, My Lady,” Watts reporte, even bowing his head unwaveringly a little to her as he finished his brief. He thought it genius and completely corrupt, how only two conglomerates, albeit two of the biggest corporations in the world, could sway one of the most unwavering of men, or cyborgs, to fall in line as Ozpin had. 

 

Salem smiled, pleased that her work and influence had come to fruition by ways of Watts and of Sturm. With the Tournament proceeding as she planned and with not only Cinder dead but also Raven, burning to a crisp in the flaming ruins of Schnee Manor, she would have all her opponents within one firing lane. The chessboard was easily taking shape and the game looking to be finally ready begin. This entire time she had been waiting, biding her time and gathering her resources and disciples to program a counter offensive to Ozpin’s trickery until now, she finally had steps in motion that would allow her to edge closer to her victory.

 

“Excellent,” Salem smiled, her hand gripping the air again tightly and forming another ball of her black magic. “When Vytal starts I want you and Hazel among the crowd, with yourself remaining close and observant over Sturm Schnee. I trust he will make a play for his daughters at the Tournament and we can exploit that Dr Watts,” she instructed, smiling again, a smug and still regal grin that breathed the very dark and pompous essence of her. It was all rather fitting, she and Watts particularly straight and attentive as they plotted murder and betrayal. A massacre unlike the likes that anyone had seen. “Hazel, stay close to the girls, and ensure that they do not sniff close to the rafters so to speak, make sure that Yang Xiao Long does not discover the truth about the plans. Or Glynda Goodwitch for that matter.”

 

“And what if Glynda does? What if any of them do, My Lady?” Hazel grunted again, the mere mention of Glynda’s name sparking a sharp and pulsating red ring along the outer of his pupils.

 

Glynda. He had tangled with her before, long ago, and he knew that if given the chance, she would recognise him, and know what dangers lurked in the background of the ill fated tournament. But still, he wanted her blood. To sink his fist into her gut and devour her, his sharp and beastly teeth calling for her. For that was his true power. Hazel was a beast among men, a faunus not of physical traits, but of primal instincts in many ways; the lines between himself and the dead Adam Taurus rather blurred. They would have made quite the pair.

 

“You know the plan Hazel,” Salem spoke softly, redirecting her posthumous and shivering gaze to him, however leaving the man unphased and completely lukewarm under his almost barbed skin. “If any of them discover the truth, except for our smaller, more innocent soul, then you have grounds to slay them.”

 

At that, Tyrian cackled, a massive bout of lunacy that was his laughter, unable to be stifled or silenced except my means of a good beheading. And it drove Hazel instantly insane as soon as the defiled husk of the man began to chuckle, how he would not stop, only get louder as the entire thought of Salem’s last sentence rang again and again in his ears, funnier and funnier to his twisted and unshackled mind. Whatever adage he had was surely gripping him, for he could simply not stop until Salem pounded her perfect and well sculpted fist onto the table.

 

He finally silenced himself enough to speak, since that was what her eyes commanded him to do. She wanted to know what he found so amusing.

 

“What do you find so amusing Tyrian? Considering I have instructed you to remain either here or in Vacuo for the duration of the Tournament,” Salem asked with gritted teeth.

 

Tyrian had no choice but to finally sit down, to compose himself, his Lady demanded it and he would do well to obey her before she became to infuriated with his outburst. One thing Salem did expect, was a standard of etiquette. 

 

“The innocent soul, My Lady. Who will be the one to finally kill her like her dear silver eyed mother?” Tyrian asked, sniggered behind his vile teeth. He wanted so for it to be him, so much he could barely contain himself. He wanted to kill Ruby Rose, and all the girls who he could, for his bloodlust knew no bounds when he looked at the seventeen of them.

 

Salem looked to the doors, and out of the grand hall, laughing a little to herself under her regal breath, her eyes glowing a profusely blood like crimson. The very same crimson that were the colours of the tunic of Raven Branwen.

 

Penny was smiling more than any of them, even as they exited the auditorium hand in hand with both Ruby on one side, and Yang on the other, sandwiched beautifully between the two sisters. The synth could not be anymore happy with them, the silver eyes teen smiling blissfully. Penny hardly cared, she and Ciel had had a splendid time dancing on top of their seats with Sharp and Piper as seven of the girls took to the bathroom. And they were not the only ones. 

 

The ginger android could remember seeing Nora and Blake even kissing at one point, which was a silly rare thing to see, considering the faunus had laid with the ginger booper many times and actively loved her passionately. It had sparked Glynda and her gem of course, however surprisingly sparking the mute ice cream lady to scooch in with them, and engage in a three way bout of kissing that the curious android had not seen much off. It was a rock concert at the end of everything, it may have masqueraded as a musical, but once the bass lines slithered into people’s souls with the mixture of the free flowing alcohol, the true desires and souls of the queer mass of the music hall came out. The Twins, Melanie and Miltia were especially close, huddling together and even whispering a little and looking at Blake, who was still holding Nora’s hand close to where Pyrrha was holding those of the Schnee Sisters.

 

“You know what I need to do?” Penny announced, loud enough for all, even the Aunts to hear. She was smiling proudly, very cheerful over the idea that had just struck her celica pathways that collectively made up her mind. She could hardly wait for them all to smile when she announced it, and Ruby already looked to be bubbling with anticipation. “I should grow my hair out guys!” Penny piped, smiling proudly again.

 

They all stopped, and all turned to the fair synth with glowing eyes and bountiful smiles. Yang for one instantly hugged Penny close, even picking her up and hoisting her atop her shoulder, slightly tickling her as she lifted her. 

 

Blake especially found the idea very well received. After all she had only had her own hair cut a few days ago, but they had all blurred into one another. A whole seven days had only felt like three, and now they were about to leave, so soon after arriving they would fly again amongst the stars as they did from Vale. Only this time they would fly past Vale, across the Northern Seas and into the territory that Winter still seemed so uncomfortable about. It was Atlas, Mantle, the realm that her father practically held in an iron grip. She was still so scared of going, but they were covert, far away from the capital and from the academy and with Ironwood ensuring there was no way they would be found.

 

So they had time, and precious little of it to spend in Mistral, but as Penny announced her small plan, to do something as simple as to grow her luscious and pretty ginger hair, they all could not help but coo. Until Melanie, alone, came beside Blake as they all looked on and saw Yang and Ruby tease Penny a little with her short bob. It was unusual for one of the Twins to hold the hand of another alone; Blake loved them both, but was so confused.

 

“Mel? Something up? You look sad,” Blake saw, in her eyes a small sliver of saline. Something was up and as the lonely twin, with Miltia near Emerald, Glynda and Neo, looked to Blake to slid her a small scrap of newspaper, ripped from the issue that she had read a few days ago, on the last day of term.

 

The faunus read it, carefully and precisely and multiple times just to ensure she was reading it correctly every single time. She was, the words were in written common tongue and they all formulated the same sentence every time Blake read them in conjunction. It forced to arrive at the exact same conclusion that the Twins had on that morning during breakfast.

 

It was Adam. He was dead, finally. Choked, by some mysterious assailant during some unfortunate play of erotic asphyxiation 

 

And for the first time in Blake’s life, before Winter and Weiss had to force themselves to head back into the storm that was their father’s hold over Atlas with his corporate might, the faunus with short hair could finally breathe a sigh of relief. He was dead, at long last, he would stop being the leader of her corrupted organisation and start being nothing more than a ghost. He was already a ghost, the real Adam Taurus she had loved years ago died when he started to see her as less of his love, and more of his tool, toy. But now he was dead, and she was free. It was so small, such a tiny moment on the way to the airport. But he was finally gone. 

 

There was only one thing Blake wanted to do, above kiss every one of her girlfriends, she needed to do one more thing. And thus she charged forward, to the blonde, and took her collar in her hands and practically forced her mouth upon Yang’s with such a passionate and free motion, it meant a thousand things to her. Because only Blake, and the Twins, knew how much the kiss meant. 

 

It was the first kiss Blake had given that was hers to give, without him in the world. And of course, Blake gave it to Yang. There was no other person in the world, not a single soul, for Yang was her bondmate, above all the others, no matter if she loved them all equally, the blonde simply had Blake. 

 

But the next two kisses, were to Pyrrha and to Neo, for all they had done for her that night in the warehouse, the last time Blake had seen him. It felt like a lifetime ago compressed into three months. Ruby, Weiss, Nora, Coco, Velvet and the rest were all next. But Blake felt as if her adage and her shackles were shaken, and she no longer had to hold onto the past. 

 

She could burn it, along with the infernal book. Adam, was dead.

 

Omake 1

 

Merely an hour later, and they were boarding, all luggage stored safely in the jet and the girls ready for a longer flight than ever before, even longer than one Winter had taken; she’d never flown from the bays of Mistral Central back home. It was going to be a long night and by the time they arrived at the lodge she knew all she would want would be the world’s longest bubble bath with the world’s most beautiful sixteen women. It would be such a long flight. 

 

“Oh please do call us once you get there Pyrrha dear,” Sharp pleaded with her niece, holding her dear hands in her own as she did not want to say goodbye to the fair redhead. They had spent only a day together as per the plan, but still both Aunts wanted more of Pyrrha. It was such a hard thing to see her for such a small amount of time before she flew off again, just as she did when heading to Vale. But it had been a time, one for the photo album; they were so happy to see what she had become, in little time. “Be safe dear.”

 

Pyrrha smiled, kissing her Aunts goodbyes on their cheeks and walking back as they slowly left them at the waiting area of the tiny terminal. “I’ll be fine, I’ll see you both in the Spring for Vytal. I love you,” Pyrrha called out softly. She heard them both shout their love back, and joined the rest of the girls. 

 

They boarded rather efficiently, all together and in single file as the rest of the airport went about the business of the night shift, until Winter made out a familiar face.

 

She was at the back of the line of her girlfriends, with her nerves in her throat about their destination, and she simply glanced over to the small store kiosk of the terminal, spotting a face she had not seen in years. One she had dreamed about plenty of times and one she had spent a small amount of time loving, as a teen in Atlas Academy.

 

It was Saffron Traynor. The first woman Winter had ever loved and the one her father had flushed from Atlas for that very reason. She was old, older than before and just as fair and beautiful. Saffron Traynor, with a buggie by her with a small boy nestled inside. 

 

Winter could not help but smile as their eyes met, no time to talk, but time to think, a whole flight, and as Winter boarded, smiling massively at her friend, Saffron smiled back, even waved, seeing Winter off, the roles reversed this time.

 

“What is it Winter darling?” Weiss asked as they took their seats together. The smaller snowflake was next to her elder sister and the little rose, who was already preparing to sleep the entirely fight away. Winter simply sighed and smiled again, wrapping her arms around Weiss and kissing her forehead.

 

“Remind me to tell you about it when we get back to Vale, Weiss my love, for now, let’s sleep until we get home.”

 

Home, Atlas. They were going home, both of them, only, it was more like they were taking home with them. 

 

Omake 2

 

It was a thunderous outrage of Zeus and his cohorts above the island of Patch, with the rain and the wind and the lightning all clashing in an epic cacophony that was the thunderstorm. Cliche as it might have seemed to have the poor dragon slayer and lion of a man to wake in the middle of the one thunderstorm his island home begged for in a year, but Taiyang Xiao Long could not sleep. Not from the constant sound of the rain on his window, of his room with the single bed in space of the king sized one that once stood in that spot, nor the sound of the thunder crashing into trees all around his forest home. What woke Tai, was the profound knocking on the front door, at least that was what it sounded like. 

 

Who would be knocking in the middle of a thunderstorm? Who even knew where he lived save for Qrow and his daughters?

 

The door soon flew open, by his own hand and much to his shock, more shock than anyone in the world could muster from one sight. It was the last one that Taiyang would ever thought he was see in his life. He stood there shocked, petrified in his boxer briefs and his muscular torso almost convulsing as he saw her. And there she was standing before him, at if nothing had ever happened.

 

Raven, stammering against the doorframe of the log cabin with a rather large spear of wooden splinters impaled into her lower gut, just under her bust, with her armour sheared and her tunic bloody. When the mansion errupted into a flurry of flame she must have quickly threw down a portal at her side and another somewhere else, however before leaving the banister of the staircase must have flew into her, spearing her like a fish.It was so bloody, so much blood, all over her from the massive wound in her, with another wound in her head, seeping yet another source of dry and shining blood. 

 

“Tai!” She grunted, staggering into her old home, clutching at the wound in her side, holding the spear that had impaled her. She took only a small step before finally collapsing, onto the floor and spilling her blood all over the carpet, staining it and pouring herself out quite literally.

 

“Raven!” Tai cried out as he slammed the door shut and got to his knees to help her. “Fuck! Raven!”

 

“Tai… Help me… Please…”

 

To Be Continued…


	20. Thriller

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Girls arrive at Atlas for a night fo frights as well as a new face that instantly takes their liking. And Jaune, Amber, Roman and Merc, finally get word on their dying Cinder

The music was just as it was the day before, however far more menacing and yet even more charming as the entourage of the Schnees made their way in a fancy dress into the club dance room, the band in full funk and a familiar face at the mic stand. It was a spectacular scene. A pure and utter thriller.

The bass guitar was walking itself, the guitarist drinking as a detached hand took the strings for a ride of their own. Three backing singers were wailing, like ghouls, with skulls painted on their faces and in full but tattered suits. There lay a keyboard, with an invisible woman playing, her bony hands glowing in the dark as the bassist slithered his strings against the body. The beautiful funk playing in surround sound made the whole room critter with creep.

And everyone was dressed up.

There were ghouls, and werewolves, goblins, and the undead. Vampires littered the bar and in the shadowed and shrouded corners, fangs rife and even deep inside some maiden's or boy's neck as they suckled on the blood. Murder victims were fitting about the dancefloor as the all too familiar maestro entertained them on the mic.

Neon knew him, better than anyone in the world and as soon as she saw his familiar shades and his fedora, which he wore even on Halloween, she squeaked like the kitten she was, clutching Blake and Yang's arms as she saw him. They both smooched her and reminded her that she couldn't see him until after the number he was performing, which just so happen to have the skeletons and abnormalities of the dancefloor in a spirling and spooky trance of dance.

The girls were all dressed too, in a haphazard mess of clothing from when they arrived at the lodge they would be staying at for the remaining five days. Their vacation ended the day after Oummas and they all knew they wouldn't want to leave, but they would have to. For now, they had this, the one day a year where everyone dressed spookily, and the girls did just that.

Ruby was a witch, very imaginative but it was all she could throw together in such a short space of time. The Atlesian Airport had a very small selection and she was not the best at shopping alone. But still, Pyrrha and Winter thought she looked cute, and even creepy in her own way, but mostly cute. Ruby was adorable enough as it was. In a small witchy costume, she looked utterly irrefutable to any request, save she bewitch them anyway.

Weiss was a beautiful and pompous Comtesse, stunning and regal, in the same colors as she and Winter had always been; glacier white and icy blue but with glitter dashed in her eyes and her hair in a similar back tail to Pyrrha's. But she looked a little darker, poisoned by the dark and creepy lights of the hallowed hall. She had been eying up her subject Miss Valkyrie the entire limo ride over. They had barely even stopped at the Lodge if only to drop their bags in the doorway and quickly changed. It must have been the busiest three hours of their lives, and now they were in for the most harrowing of nights of their lives.

Blake, the beautiful and blushing faunus was rather stuck for ideas but remembered a majestic and haunting woman from a small indie film she watched a few years ago with her mother, back before she joined the White Fang. The woman was a faunus too, just like her, and Blake could always remember her long black hair, somewhat straightened, her slender and hugging black dress and her beautifully gothic makeup. She would be Blake this night, or rather Blake would be her, the long and beautifully dark woman from her movie, and she looked gorgeous, with her hair and ears completely on show, her eyes smokey and catlike, ready for Yang to take a bite of her.

The blonde herself had taken the tale of 'The Beauty and Beast' and perhaps mixed it all together, donning a grand golden ballgown that expanded her radius, and made herself look like a creature of the night too. She was Belle, but as a Vampire, and she had claimed Blake as her victim as soon as they were changed. No one refused, however, Comtesse Schnee demanded she has a dance with the faunus at some point in the night, to the point of even threatening Yang with a wooden stake. She would relent, there were plenty of other fresh maidens ripe for turning in their entourage, Winter being one of them, as was Glynda, and the glamorous looking Twins of course.

Pyrrha became a Fallen Angel, with the others telling her she looked heavenly every day of her life and thus she reversed it, looking hellish, and yet still stunning. Nora donned a red leather jacket to look like some fabled pop singer from years ago; Taiyang could have told them who, but not Glynda, she had skipped that era of music. Ciel was what she described as a 'Ghostbuster' and Penny was her Ghost prisoner or lover, they could agree on which. Coco and Velvet were accompanying Sailors, superwomen in strapping outfits and masks, here to save the day from their villain 'Tuxedo Mask'. Glynda unimaginatively was a fairy witch, rather the opposite of Ruby, but she wasn't in it for the dress just the party and the dancing, while Emerald was an ancient warrior from Vacuo, someone she called 'Aladdin' only the little gem admitted her design was far more elegant and even sexy. Neo was a very, very, alluring Ice Cream Witch, complementing the Ruby Witch and the Glynda Fairy Witch very well with her scooped chest piece and her goopy hat; one would have sworn she had it ready in her luggage for such a dance. The Twins were uninspired they simply swapped the outfits they were wearing the first time Yang had met them, Miltiades dressing as Melanie and Melanie dressing as Miltiades. But they still looked fabulous and it was good to see them busting out the old tutus and feather headpieces once again, it had been too long for Yang. Winter too was fairly simple, a more feminine variety of Weiss's Comtesse ensemble, being the wife and iron of the Countess, and looking absolutely stunning; perhaps Saffron was still on her mind.

That left Neon, who was looking perhaps the cutest out of all of them.

She was, much the same, but so different and so imaginative; a rollerblading waitress from a retro diner, except she was undead and mauled by something, with ribbed exposed and blood all over her, very ghoulish, and very dead. She looked amazing and all her girlfriends said so. And poor Neon Katt was completely taken by the man on the stage, head of the band and maestro of the evening, her dear friend and once partner before he struck his big break.

"Flynt!" She cheered, seeing him as he flipped his fedora and rang the chorus.

"Because this is Thriller! Thriller night! You're fighting for your life inside a… Killer, Thriller!" Flynt cried, draping his tanned and slender, ever sexy and bone covered hands over the mic stand, flipping it around after as the backups carried his chords. The bassist continued to charm his guitar to manipulate its own strings, walking along the fret progression in a round trip of jazz and funk as the woman, the invisible woman on the keyboard walked with it. The drums were muted rather, slow and muffled, a cool and somber beat as the lingers bass carried the dancers.

They were all perfectly in sync, and Yang wanted in. She took Blake's hand and escorted her to the floor, the shrouding fog and cobwebs scattered making it a perfect arena for a creepy boogie. But the Belle with fangs was feeling her hunger for Blake's blood already.

Winter, Glynda, and Emerald headed to the bar, to order a round of drinks, hoping that the ectoplasm hadn't taken hold of the complete menu. While Penny was a ghost of her former self, the other girls would not be able to down it. And moreover, Ruby, while even as her witchy self, had to be lumped with a soda.

The Witches, Ruby and Neo found a small table near the window, on the far side of the room, as Blake had already taken Yang by her hand and escorted the vampire to the dancefloor as Flynt kept singing, his chilling and the gripping ballad of monsters creeping around young maidens and taking them out. It was thrilling to hear, and they all were tapping feet, swaying heads and moving in time to the funky bass line, slithering all over the place while they tapped. Blake's heels were clashing against the floor so harshly she was amazed no one was forcing her away from the hard wood of the dancefloor. Yang simply smiled, and pushed her bust closer into the feline's, not needing any stimulation, she was already wriggling and bathing herself in the aura of her partner, and the spooky surroundings.

She loved a party and hadn't had a big one in a while.

They were all taking full advantage, at least when Glynda and Winter arrived at the table with the round of drinks that looked more like a zombie or aberrational sustenance than alcoholic drinks, still, Ruby was relegated to soda and pouted as such. To her, the beverages looked very enticing, but she was still too young to try. She had two years to go.

"Chin up my little Rose," Winter slithered, bending over in her age-old dress, so much so that her bust nearly leaped out of the cups of her dress and into Ruby's face. "You don't need alcohol to enjoy this creepy evening," she teased, her own fangs peeking out from her lips and gums. Ruby giggled, she did not realize the elder Schnee was wearing them.

She cackled even, suddenly tickled over how Winter was trying to get into the spirit of the night and make the little Rose feel better about being the youngest. It was sweet but the comedy store fangs made it all the less sweet. Yang's were believable, she had made them so, but Winter must have acquired hers at a dime store out the airport. They were tacky, to say the least. But still, Ruby thought the gesture sweet, in her own playful way.

"Oh I know Winter, I mean when you almost but these in my face," Ruby sniggered, resting her palms under Winter's bust and raising and lowering each breast with a smug face. She was really feeling rebellious and playful. Enough to feel them, in front of the rest of the girls.

Duchess Schnee gasped and stood straight, covering her barely contained bust from anymore joking grabs as Ciel, Penny, and the Twins chuckled to themselves, all sipping on the cocktails brought over. Nora herself was on the dancefloor too, a little closer to the edge and strutting her stuff in her blatant red jacket and rocking sneakers, her ginger hair zapping through the air and trailing a path around the floor. She was a walking pop culture reference that barely anyone got, but she was still loving it and even channeling her semblance into her dancing, rather dangerously too. All while the fallen angel with black wings and her tattered red ball gown boogied on the sidelines; Pyrrha was perfectly content to, she would fully foxtrot with another once she had gotten a stiff drink in her, and since it was getting close to the real holidays, marking the start of the holiday week with the Night of Frights, she would choose brandy or vodka.

She had to giggle, chuckle, and still, cover her fake bloodied lips as Nora absolutely made a perfect fool of herself. But she was doing it with a smile on her pretty face. "Come on Nora, how much longer darling?" Pyrrha said breathlessly, still chuckling to herself at the moves her ginger girlfriend was making on the floor.

Nora giggled. "Come on stiff lips, get in here with me, strut your sexy Fallen Angel ass Pyr!" She called back, smiling profusely, her teeth gleaming. How she kept them so white and pearly, able to shimmer in the low disco light was a mystery considering her diet. No one questioned, just as they didn't ask how many cookies Ruby vacuumed up each day.

The ginger didn't even wait, she soon walked forward and held Pyrrha by her elegant and beautiful hands, eliciting her to gasp, coo and then walk forward with a suave and fucking wiggle of her hips, leaving her little spot to fully dance. Flynt was still strutting his own stuff atop the stage and singing his heart out, and he was genuinely good, very good in fact, with an inflection of masterful tones and even a creepy subtext of his vocal tones. He lunged forward, as the bass continued to walk eerily. "This is the end of the night~" the hatted maestro chimed, just as the woman on keyboard rang some fake brass. He performed a small twirl afterward, his tails flailing and his form looking like a ghost, however, sexy he was.

It was not long until the small ballad ended, and the entire hall cheered and clapped in mild applause. He had been singing and entertaining them for some three hours already and the night was really starting to get going, the creep was spreading and he was enjoying himself.

Neon could tell he was, and she sighed in a haphazard blush that was across her face. She was leaning against the railing to the dancefloor, as close as she would allow herself to get yet until he declared that he was taking a small break and she could finally see him. All Neon wanted to do, in her slightly skimpy and candy cane colored waitress costume, with her rollerblades, was to hug the man, to hold him and say hello. It had been months, so many months since he had decided to drop out from Atlas because of all the corruption, the horrible climate, the constant military play and the deep-seated hatred for the other kingdoms rooted within. He had had to leave, leave his entire team, and piss off so many people in the process. Only Neon could not hate him, she couldn't even dislike him, in fact, she could do nothing else except adoring him and have the most respect for the man. Flynt Coal, her friend, her partner, leader and now the man who was entertaining people at a small disco. She had the biggest smile on her face.

"He's pretty good isn't he?" A small and unrecognizable voice came from next to Neon, as she snapped herself out of her trance. Her mildly infatuated trance as he straightened himself, said hello to the latecomers and took a sip of his water ready for the next number.

The feline's tail stood on end before she turned to see the new face, a tanned face with short black hair and a fair complexion, nothing really explicitly done up with makeup or anything of the sorts, but beautiful in the way the eyes glimmered and the cheeks of the mysterious visitor shone almost as they looked to the stage too, still clapping with some of the audience for the next number. They were dressed as a pirate, and a rather well-done pirate too, with a well-tattered top, black and whitely striped, a red neckerchief draping the collar. They wore gloves, brown and professional, not likely bought props for a costume but actually owned or at least handed down heirlooms of real maritime or aerial service. The pair looked like flight gloves. Lastly was their tightly fitting brown pants, almost like spandex that hugged splendid thighs and tone calves almost perfectly, toning and amplifying their profile to the point that they made Neon look down at them and ogle.

To complete the look, they held with them one prop, close to their bust and tightly nuzzled in an arm, looking too cute to be true. It was a small plushie of a battle cannon from a boat, which first struck Neon as odd that someone would have such a precise stuffed toy, but then touched her heart strings at how the stranger was holding it.

"He's amazing. Always been good, but now he's amazing!" The chipper feline purred and exclaimed, a wicked smile on her face.

The stranger sighed. "Tell me about it. I've only been at Atlas a couple of months, barely know anyone here really and all I can do is listen to his music on watch. And even in the cockpit sometimes," they reported, letting slip they were a pilot indeed, and by the sounds of things, for the Atlesian Military, or so Neon had guessed with the gloves.

"Pilot huh? Military Base at Fort Haus?" Neon asked, making the presumption the person before her was an ensign of the local military compound, Fort Haus, which was where General Ironwood correlated between the military and Atlas Academy proper. He was General and Headmaster. Some always protested that. It was the best guess for Neon, she knew the premises of Atlas and the main capital city, in which both the Academy and the Base were located, barely ten minutes away by airship ride.

The pirate, the rather cute and pretty pirate hummed and nodded as she looked back at Neon with a smile. "Yeah but not for much longer, I hope, just so long as I can get a good university education and then I can get back out to sea!" They gleamed, and Neon could even feel the sea air remaining in the stranger's bones, in her soul, what could have been an aura. But she did not think the stranger was a huntress, there was a certain air missing about them that she would have found, triggered when searching through her, reading her like Glynda had taught her and her other professors beforehand. The stranger's was missing, which also told Neon they were just a normal pilot, well, not normal, just not a hunter.

The fluffy feline rollerblader fully turned and offered her hand in polite introduction, despite how far into the conversation they were. "Sorry, my name is Neon, Neon Katt. And it's very nice to meet you!" She sang, eyes closing as her tongue poked out of her catlike mouth.

"Hey, Neon! My name's Matte! Matte Skye, or should I say Ensign Matte Skye, and permanent sailor!" The pirate gleamed, smiling happily as they clutched their plush of the cannon and shook Neon's hand graciously. It made the feline smile more, Matte's confidence and before they knew it, Neon had taken their hand with both of hers, a toothy smile gleaming.

She had a crazy but beautiful idea in mind, and looking to the cannon plush again, Neon had to ask. "Matte, would you like to come hang out with me and my girlfriends?" Neon asked a very fervent vigor in her voice and a glee that she loved having. Matte was nice, a had randomly struck conversation with Neon, and on top of that they were, for now, an Atlesian, and a friend just ready to be made. The rest of the girls would love them, Neon could tell just from the handshake, the cannon plush in Matte's hands, and the shimmer of their pretty face and smile. Matte was cute as anything, as cute as the plush, or Ruby on a certain day, or Nora with pancakes, except in such a different way.

Matte Skye, was cute, in a new way, a way Neon hadn't felt really.

"Neon, I would love to!" Matte cried, their smiled growing even wider though Neon thought it slightly impossible, yet it did. They did look cute, and now all of her fellow girls could see Matte. Ruby would love them, Yang too, if she could stop waltzing with Blake and trying to practically devour her. It was going to be a pretty good night, and it had barely started yet, Flynt still had a lot more songs to go, and Weiss was going to join him.

Weiss was going to play the piano.

Meanwhile, In Vale…

Jaune and Amber were both pacing, both in alternate directions and both with tears in their eyes, heads lowered and hands running through their hairs, all while Roman stayed sat on the chair, his foot tapping at the rate of a machine gun. He fired it off from the stress, from the worry, the anger, the sadness. In truth, he was a whole mess of emotion while he waited. While they all waited.

All while Cinder lay inside the theater, highly likely unconscious, or even dead.

No, she couldn't be dead, she wouldn't, or at least, Amber, Jaune and Roman all hoped, prayed to the Gods and pleaded with any other higher power that she would live, that she would be okay, fine, alive. But they simply did not know, there was no way of knowing either. And what made it worse was that there seemed no sign of any news passing their way anytime soon. All that transpired in the next three minutes was Mercury coming back with a small tray containing four coffees. It was going to be such a long night.

"How could you leave pills in the cupboards?" Amber let slip in her frustration, looking right at Roman, with a faint smell of brimstone in her as Jaune could sense. She was flaring, and of course, she was too her… Other half could be dead, or barely alive. Her anger was twisting its tendrils around her mind, sewing itself into her mentality until all she knew was that Cinder had taken pills that Roman, of all people, had not kept away from her.

But his face, was not one of shock and hurt, as Mercury silently felt it would be as he stood next to the dapper store owner. No Roman was scorned as if stabbed causally and in a place where it made him more angry than hurt. He was actually growing furious.

"They were my damn pills, I have some trouble sleeping sometimes, after all, I sleep on a fucking chair, and what was I supposed to do? Lock them in a drawer? She's not suicidal!" Roman sneered, not even standing, but slithering her retort back to Amber with such a prevalent force behind it made Jaune a little sickly. It was already ugly, but he did not want to involve himself one bit. He would rather look, or try to, into the theater, to see what they were doing to keep his lover, Cinder, alive and stabilize her. He could only hope they were fast enough to save her; she did down the whole bottle, though.

The flame in Amber's eyes intensified, and Merc could see it, but he was under the same mentality as Jaune, he did not want to become involved, the mood was shot enough, an argument with more people would only tear the waiting room apart. Still, her eye glowed, a flame, smoldering and smelting the tips of her bob of hazelnut hair. She was angry, more so than she had ever been in her life, more so than she had been with Ozpin that day at the vault barely a week ago. What a week it had been, for her to come back from the dead only for Cinder to threaten to actually take her place in the end. It was madness, pure and utter madness, and Amber was slowly adjusting to how their lives, and her life, was. It was this permanent chaos, this unexplainable source of unbelievable events.

Like a story, a book, or play, even a fairy tale, however, one of the most morbid ones she had seen and experienced. Amber turned to Roman again with her flaring eyes.

"She's not suicidal? Then why the fuck is she in a hospital theater after downing about seventeen sleeping pills, after you left her alone Roman?! Hey?!" Amber roared in his face, shouting at the top of her lungs into his face, as close as she could get. Her point was right. How could he explain it? He couldn't, none of them could, because they did not know, not the true extent of Cinder's nightmares, and now what Salem had told her, what she had promised her. That she was going to murder Jaune.

It was truly heartbreaking and enough called for Jaune to take his hands away from the door, his eyes away from the inside and put his attention to Amber, whom he immediately got to work with his semblance to calm her down. It worked too, faster than normal. Her flame died down in her eyes and she soon melted, collapsed into a hug, taking him in her arms and her in his. And they both began to weep again, as Merc sat next to Roman, and took him in a hug too.

"This is no one's fault," Jaune said plainly, no emotion in his chords but frail sadness and a somber undertone. He still had no idea what to do, that was the one thing that scared him most. That he had absolutely no idea what was happening, what state she was in or what state she would be in after the emergency had ended. And he had no clue what he would do, he could possibly make her well, or at least not so bad if he stayed with her. But that would take a very long and increased exposure to his semblance, and he doubts he could keep up that strength. Then there was also Amber, and Roman and Merc. What would they do? The half maiden in his arms was already shaken to her core, completely displaced from herself to the point that her temper had severely snapped. Only his semblance was keeping her calm, as he could tell, performing a rapid survey of her aura, and how it was trembling, wobbling, threatening to violently explode. On top of that, of course, she was weeping, holding him close as he held and soothed her.

It took another five minutes of utter and soul shattering silence before anything else happened and that something was the double doors of the theater opening and the Doctor coming out. What was even worse, was that Headmaster Ozpin chose that exact moment to show his face too.

Ozpin, was a nuclear device contained to a face, already detonated.

"What. Happened?" He asked in one of the most stone colds and cast iron voices Jaune had ever heard from a person, let alone from someone who he once thought was the paragon of virtue and the coolest Headmaster in the world. Now all Jaune saw was the puppeteer and manipulator Amber had called him.

Jaune gave no answer, and certainly neither did Amber. Instead, she looked at him with a red flame, not orange, in her eye; she was in the same, possibly a worse, frame of hatred for him than when she was freed from the Aura Transfer Machine. Roman gave nothing either, he did not even notice Ozpin, not even his aura or give him a glance. The Headmaster was simply not there to him, despite the loops and stress and distress Ozpin had caused to even have Roman released from prison.

The Doctor did not even address him, he instead turned and walked to Roman, helping the business man up. Jaune didn't know if it was because Roman was the eldest, or because he was the one who drove Cinder her, or for how he looked. But the Doctor took Roman's hand and even thanked him, praised him for being so swift, and getting her to the hospital to rapidly. "She's alive," he declared, earning a massive and audible sigh of relief from Amber and a small well of tears from Jaune. "But she is not as stable as we were hoping," the Doctor then followed, earning their eyes again.

Jaune could feel Amber tremble again, her aura flaring like the maiden powers within her.

"She's in a coma, despite that being a very big abnormality with this kind of attempted suicide. And we're also reading very heavy aura fluctuations, and a swell of brain activity," came from the Doctor again with a very somber look on his face and a quill in his voice. "We'll be moving her to the ward after a few final checks, but you can go see her now if you wish. Please, only one at a time."

The blonde was already pushing Amber to the door. It had to be her he felt, as much as he wanted to see his lover, to talk to her and try and bring her back already, Amber was her other half, quite literally, it should be her first. He would deal with Ozpin, allow Merc to rest and Roman to see Cinder second. He needed the rest more than anyone, and Jaune could deal with Ozpin better than any of them, he hoped.

He smiled when she looked at him, and without words, he told her she needed to see Cinder, to talk to her, and discover just what the fluctuations of aura were. Amber was just about the only other person theoretically that could detect them, sharing Cinder's aura. Then Jaune looked to Ozpin, for once a mug of coffee not in his hands at all, nor his cane, which the regal blonde had just noticed. In fact, Ozpin looked very different, very different indeed, the scarf around his neck loose and ragged, his cross off center and his glasses pushed all the way up the bridge of his nose.

This was a different Ozpin, not one Jaune had certainly seen; caneless, coffeeless and sterner and slightly more malefic than when they two had seen each other last. Jaune could sense it, sense something, and it was more than just the way Oz was looking because he looked as terrible as Jaune was feeling inside.

Something was in the air, in their air, and it was beginning to stick out like a sore thumb.

"Headmaster, we need to talk," Jaune told Oz in a rather stern counter before the professor could even tell Jaune the same thing. It was that bile, that foul lather in the air that was encircling them and poisoning them, the very same that was bathing Ozpin. Did he even notice? Could he feel it? Jaune slowly slipped his semblance into Ozpin's aura, trying his best to be discreet.

Amber did not even wait for Jaune and Ozpin to leave, she could hardly stand the sight of the ragged Headmaster who looked as if he just got out of bed. Even she was off-put by his distinguishable offenses and hoped that Jaune could deal with it. Now she was in the theater, with Nurses and more Doctors clearing their stations and prepping down the theater for another patient soon, as soon as they could move Cinder's comatose body to another bed on a ward and link her up to fluids to sustain her. There was no need for life support, as Amber saw, no machine was present or hooked up to her, which was a very good thing. But Amber could instantly feel the mess of brain activity and aura stipulation as soon as she got closer. Her own aura shuddered, lagged and even rubbed wrong against her as if something or someone had reversed the polarity. It was a battery having its poles flipped.

Before she got to the chair, Amber's tears came streaming out again slowly, her heart swollen and thumping blood around with such a wrenching glaze of despair. It was like someone had torn it out of her when she saw Cinder, asleep, comatose, and with no given date to wake up.

In merely a week, Amber had been resurrected, had fallen for Cinder, had helped her, and was now looking at her in a hospital theater, having her try to claim her own life. And the only question Amber could ask was why. Why would Cinder do it? It wasn't in her nature, was it? Would she give up her humanity, her life, for nothing?

At Atlas…

Matte laughed, chuckled as they drank the cocktail lovingly bought for them by Comtesse Winter Schnee.

It had not been an hour and already all of the girls who were still around their small table were laughing and joking, fully enjoying the Ensign's company. They were lovely, as Weiss and Ruby had both commented multiple times, and Matte had countered them, telling the pair they were very cute. The Twins had cooed over the small plush of the heavy cannon and Ciel had asked what model it was if it was designed off of one. The Analyst Penny-buster was somewhat versed in nautical weaponry from her uncle, who was had served since sixteen.

"It's actually the Buster Model 1667! When I was last at sea the ship I was serving on had it as it's heavy cannon and, well," Matte blushed, holding their small teddy close and becoming embarrassed to the large love they had for cannons. "I kinda really love it, I love ships, the sea, nautical warfare. I'm kinda of a salty sea-dork," they mumbled, turtling with their heavy cannon.

The girls all cooed, letting slip soft 'aws' and looks of deep admiration and likeness. It was almost an undeniable fact already that they all found Matte as cute as anything. They were just as Neon thought, different and beautiful, on the inside and the out.

"Alright everyone it's time for me to welcome a good friend from Atlas on stage for the next song," Flynt announced from the stage, causing all the girls to turn around.

Weiss, still on Ruby's lap from the whole half hour they had been chatting and even semi-flirting with Matte Skye, had her heart pounding, enough for her to hear it from where she was sitting. Considering what she was about to do, and how long she had gone without doing it, she was more than a little nervous; she was currently wishing not to play at all, but she had promised Flynt, her sister, and the girls as well. And deep down she almost wanted to show off her piano talents, as well as her singing voice, which was about as finely tuned as cat's squark. But nevertheless, she took her cue from Flynt and began to make her way to the keyboard on the stage.

"Please put your ghoulish hands together for Miss Weiss Schnee," Flynt called once she reached the keys, and the dancers, the drinkers, the goblins, witches, necromancers, they all clapped. The girls at their table made an uproar.

Blake and Yang took to the dancefloor again, as did Winter, asking Ruby for her hand. Neon took Neo, Glynda, and Emerald of course. The Twins elected to stay seated with Coco and Neo as Nora and Pyrrha returned for their dance.

Matte suddenly felt like a small burden, with Neon taking Neo and all the other girls taking partners to dance. Really, Matte did as well, they wished to join the entourage of women and the synth, but felt too shy and too new to ask, until they felt a small pat on their shoulder. It was Ciel, in her utility suit and Penny-buster backpack, with the smiling and ghastly looking synth behind her with welcoming eyes. The reserved pirate didn't know what to say, and Ciel's beautiful hand was extended outwards, a silent offering of a dance with her and Penny.

"Would you like to dance Matte? With myself and Penny?" She even asked the plushie holding pirate.

Matte was completely dumbstruck, but they settled their beautifully crafted heavy cannon plush onto the table with the twins and Sailors and then left for the floor with the Analyst and her Penny.

"So, Weiss, lay us a note, let's hit this place up," Flynt smugly told his new pianist and Weiss smiled. Before she could place her finger on a key, however, Flynt activated his semblance, and all four of him took up his trumpet ready. This was going to be fun and free, with added maestro and gusto. She was excited and anticipated a good performance, which also mildly made her neck hairs stand on end. It had been more than a couple years since she had played the piano at the Schnee Manor, the main one.

Weiss struck her chord and the backing singer erupted into a call. "Come, with, me!" They rang, and Weiss took that as a signal to carry on with her next fiddle of the keys, making sure not to mess up. Thanking the Gods she didn't, the guitarist, bassist, and drummer all started their walks, into a cacophony of sound, with Weiss at the helm for a few seconds of the intro with her fingers on the keys.

Soon it came to die down, and Weiss took to the mic that was positioned at her lips as she continued to play, more of a bassline to amplify it with the bassist next to her. She was smiling already as she sung. "We took a back road. We're gonna look at the stars, we took a back road in my car. Down to the ocean, it's only water and sand and in the ocean, we'll hold hands," she breathlessly fluttered in a sweet and melodic tone. It was pure and high pitched of course, as they all thought it would be from her lungs. While her tone was docile and fairly earth at times, with the spearmint breath and caramel textured voice, her singing voice was something else. It was as smooth as silk and velvet to the ears. The girls on the dancefloor snapped heels and wrists to it, waltzing in a semi-unified dance together.

Yang was smiling as she looked into yellow eyes again, on the dancefloor with her for the second time that night, it may have been too often, but Blake, of course, was still feeling the full liberty that was gifted to her from Melanie. She was still enjoying it. They would soon dance with other of course, as Weiss continued to sing they stepped forward with heated vigor, their chests pressed together and fingers intertwined, Yang kissing Blake's neck again before a dip.

By the first chorus, Flynt still hadn't sung, he'd left the audience's ears to the stunned heiress, amazed at her own ability to sing and playing. Needless to say, she loved it, but quickly she passed the spotlight to him. The skull painted maestro in his stylish fedora stepped up to his mic and sang them in the chorus, the dancers picking up pace, even moving into samba and salsa, more fast paced dances with bodies to bodies.

"Don't you wanna come with me? Don't you wanna feel my bones, on your bones? It's only natural," he slithered, popping his body too and animating his fingers and hands.

Ciel twirled Matte in graceful euphoria, the strumming of the guitar and more prevalent bass enabling her to fully get in time and tune with both the beautiful pirate and ginger ghost beside her. Matte, the cute and bubbly ensign was smiling more than before, their beautiful and sparkling teeth glimmering in the whirling lights and disco ball gleams. They loved it and as they came back again to in turn spin Penny, Ciel could hear the sweet sound of their giggle. It was almost the sound of a teen, the pure innocence, and cuteness that would be them captured in laughter. It was the sweetest thing Ciel had heard, even if it was muffled by the heavy bass and Flynt continuing to sing.

The Analyst saw the pleasure, the giddiness and the gay mania in Matte's eyes and instantly deemed it beautiful, just like the rest of them. She wondered if Penny and the rest of the girls were suddenly feeling the same as she was, as Neon probably had done after talking to them. Matte was simply too beautiful, too unique and too cute to let slip, and Ciel borrowed an idea into her head for the remainder of the dance. She would do it and tried to convey the same to Penny.

Matte knew they were all polyamorous and their pact along with it, Winter, Glynda and Ruby had all explained that perfectly to Matte when they asked just how so many women remained in love.

The brass soon kicked in after that, as Blake and Yang broke off, as all of them did as they conglomerated in the center of the dancefloor, all except the Penny-buster and her Penny excited and cheerful that Matte had joined them. Winter soon got to dance with them, and enjoyed their moves about as much as Ciel did, possibly even more. They were so adorable, shorter than she and their short, chocolate hair looking splendid as Winter looked at it. Pyrrha danced with them next, as they all rapidly shuffled partners, and the champion seemed to them as well, seeing their excitement and cuteness. It was so wonderful, how all the happiness and emotion from the heated and exotic getaway to Mistral had not faded. Instead, it had lingered, and now, thanks to Matte, it had transferred and transformed into a warm and cozy love in the cold climate of Atlas.

Once the pirate had shifted off again, and Ruby was dancing with Glynda, she shouted over the brass and rising tones of the music as Flynt and Weiss hit a sort of climax in instrumentation. "Let's ask them if they want to come back with us!" Ruby yelled to the teacher, and Glynda smiled back. It was perfect, as fast as it was, it was a great idea. So long as they wanted to.

"We'll ask them, I hope they wish to because I think Ciel really likes them!" Glynda called back with a smile as she swayed with Ruby and walked with her in hand.

The huntress looked to Ciel and saw her getting closer again, chest up with Matte's and holding them close. The pirate seemed to be fully into it, not wanting to leave or dance with anyone else. They held each other close, Penny diving in to dance with Pyrrha as Winter called it her end and Nora changed to sway with Neon. They could all see the fun Matte was having, the fun they were all having, and how breathless they all were, it could not be long before they all got tired, and they needed more energy to store the luggage once they got back to the lodge.

"Come and take a swim with me!" Weiss fluttered, at the end of the song on a really high note, now in full conjunction with her lead maestro singing with her.

"Don't you wanna feel my skin?" He followed, taking the mic off as his semblance of himself followed with brass playing. He walked to her at the keyboard and leaned against it in the uproar of instruments.

"On your skin? It's only natural…~" They both completed and as they did, Weiss looked to her girlfriends down at the dance floor, all looking beautiful, and with one more added member holding Ciel's arm. They were not with Ciel, but as Weiss smiled at them all, the Analyst leaned into the side and gave Matte a small peck on the cheek.

What none of them saw coming, was the grabbing of Ciel's cheeks and the kissing of her lips that Matte performed, so full of confidence that it made all of the rest of the girls coo and whistle a little. It was safe to say that Matte was going home with them, at least for a short while.


	21. Comfortably Numb

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the girls all settle down for the night and for the week in the new surroundings of the Schnee Lodge, Amber and Jaune hatch a desperate and hare-brained scheme to revive Cinder with the added help of a teacher Jaune has never seen before. Meanwhile the girls all become more attached to Matte Skye and Klein, the Schnee butler appears with grave news indeed for Yang Xiao Long. Raven, Taiyang and Qrow all reunite for the first time in almost twenty years, to discuss how they can proceed against Sturm Schnee and Vytal.

“Hello, is there anybody in there? Just nod if you can hear me. Is there anyone home? Come on, now, I hear you’re feeling down. I can ease your feet again. Get you on your feet again. Relax, I need some information first. Just the basic facts. Can you show me where it hurts?”

 

Cinder rested, moved to the ward and to a simple bed, on her back as if she were actually dead. 

 

Amber was on her own, sat in her chair as she had been for hours, long hours, lost in her own misguided translation of thoughts and feelings. Her body was numb all over and even more so than when she had been in her pod cage for over a year and upon her release. Cinder had saved her that day. The very woman who had jabbed her eye and face with an unknown brand of Grimm, who had wanted to kill her for just her mere power of Maidenhood, was the woman she now loved.

 

Was now the woman who was in a coma in the bed next to Amber.

 

She leaned forward, her index finger lightly tracing the forehead of the sleeping Cinder, moving her fringe out of the way. Amber loved her hair, loved the obsidian colour and the fleeting texture of it, how layered it was and how it fell onto her skin. How it webbed out like a rough and coarse film of fibre from her beautiful head and face. Even asleep Cinder was so stunningly beautiful, even in the position she was, as if dead or dying, she was still the most beautiful woman both Amber and Jaune had ever seen. 

 

The blonde himself was still outside, trying to make events blow over with the disheveled headmaster in the other waiting room. They had been at it for literal hours while Roman and Mercury had retreated back to the apartment to prep an away bag for Amber. Little did they remember she had only two changes of clothes and was borrowing most of the rest from Cinder and Jaune respectively. In fact, as she saw the sunrise from outside the window of the ward, the half maiden remembered that today was supposed to be the day where they reinvigorated her wardrobe and treated her to a shopping spree. Being with Cinder meant more to her however, even as she slowly began to cry over her other half’s sleeping body.

 

“Why did you do it Cindy?” Amber asked the woman in the coma, in nothing more than a meek and trembling whisper, her throat oiled up with moisture and her eyes the same, tears all over. It was all she wanted - needed - to know. Why had Cinder done it? Why had she so suddenly jumped from the edge and down into the pit of suicide, why had she attempted it so suddenly without, as far as they all knew, probable cause? It made no sense to Amber, who was still about two or three years Cinder’s senior, although they hadn’t had time to discuss ages differences. 

 

Amber didn’t care, she knew she was older than all but Roman, that was almost hot to her, being older than Cinder who she found the most attractive and older than Jaune, really the most submissive aside from Merc, but he was off limits. He was exclusive to the paladin outside and that was not going to change at all. No one minded, they could see how good Merc and Jaune were together. 

 

Amber looked at the monitor, the brainwaves and the aura tribulations, how erratic they still were before her. What battle was waging in the poor other half’s mind? Was it even that? There was almost no way for the elder to find out, until she closed her eyes, holding Cinder’s hand reaching out with more than just her physical shell. She instead decided to use her own aura, or rather the aura that had been remade for her by Cinder in the machine; the blend between her own and Cinder’s that tuned her into how and what the obsidian haired woman was always feeling or thinking. 

 

It was similar to what had revived her, except with no machine to actually transfer the aura and matter of a person, Amber was simply reaching out to grip at smoke. Catching smoke with her bare hands. Nothing happened at all, she couldn’t even mix with Cinder, not really. She felt the comatose woman, felt her turmoil inside and sensed the war of greymatter and psionic abilities afflicting her, but nothing concrete, nothing that did not feel like a lucid dream. Perhaps that as all it was in Cinder’s mind, a massive dream from which there was no obvious escape. She was trapped either way, and Amber winced at the thought again.

 

Before she could try again, Jaune and Ozpin finally came back, the headmaster looking less like a prisoner of Atlas Dungeons and more like the professor of Beacon he was, only with bags under his eyes and his hair in one hell of a state. It was still off, he was still off. A small fluctuation in his own aura made him seem alien to Amber, certainly not like the first or the least time she’d met him. There was more bile, more disdain and more arrogance about him, although there was already enough of that with him as always.

 

“What are you still doing here?” Amber shot at him, like a vocal missile to display the fact that despite his abnormality, she still did not want Ozpin anywhere near Cinder at all. “You’re not welcome Ozpin,” she added, slamming down a hammer on his name, putting upon it the full force of her tongue and pronunciation. All the blood suddenly rushed around her veins, all rushing to her biceps and pecs that suddenly tensed when he walked passed her. Nothing would please the half maiden more than the relief of grabbing his aged and eternal face and slamming it into a wall.

 

Still the headmaster stared her down, as if she were some runt child speaking out against her father or mother on something not worthy of note. Something Ozpin would certainly never do at all. He would speak, he would console, or at least that was what Jaune was expecting as he took his position at Cinder’s head and stroked her hair, looking back to see the brief stand off. What he saw was a foreign Oz, someone who was not the man he agreed to work for, the man he agreed to let his team splinter for. It almost made the blonde feel a little sick over the ghastly sight of the headmaster. 

 

Had Jaune really given up his life for this? 

 

Meanwhile…

 

They all burst through the door for the second time in the same day, or what they had considered to be a day, given the changeover from Mistral to Atlas timezones. It had resulted in something like a thirty-two hour day for the seventeen of them. Except now there were not seventeen of them, as they thundered in through the door, Yang and Nora, Coco and tipsey Velvet and even Ruby pushing upon Weiss as she fiddled with the keys to the lodge. In the end they all pushed too forcefully and too fast so that they all fell through the threshold and onto the entry room floor, all giggling as the rest of the party fell on top of one another.

 

Ciel fell onto the floor near the latch, with Penny on top of her and then Matte on top of Penny, all giggling too and smiling smiles of celestial blissness as they lay on each other for a warm minute. The warmth of the preheated lodge was bleeding into the cold as Glynda and Neon got up first, almost dithering and wanting to pile all of the entourage into the lodge as quick as possible, save not unleashing all the heat. They were cold enough as it was.

 

“Quiiiiiiiiiick!!” Neon peeped as she scooted inside over the bodies of her girlfriends and Matte, still smiling and wobbling on her rollerblades. They were all still in costume and some of them wanted to be out of such clothing. “Lemme iiiiiiin. Come ooooooon!” She squealed even more after moving past Weiss’s pretty head, which Ruby was leaning to kiss. 

 

Glynda was cold too, shaking and grunting from the icy grip the weather had over her bones. At this rate it would take longer for her to warm up and they had no idea if the water was heated as the rooms were. In a split second of thought she, Winter, and Weiss all came to a small realisation as they felt the warm bubble of the grand living room.

 

Why was the house heated? Why would the boilers and radiators be on if no one had been living here in years?

 

The rest of the girls and the beautiful Matte Skye soon filed in, dumping their coats all over one of the sofas and then all trying to pile onto another. Televisions remained off and for a long while as the more dominant girls, Glynda, Winter as usual, Pyrrha, even Yang stood and began to chatter amongst themselves as Ruby and more of the smaller girls all cuddled on the sofa, still a little cold. The heat was warming them though, although Weiss could not think of how the house was even heated. It had been nearly abandoned for years, only regularly being cleaned and swept every three or so months by the cleaning staff. But they would not leave the heaters on for three months and risk a fire, would they?

 

“Woooooow Weiss this place is biiiiiig, and spacious,” Ruby exclaimed, rolling her head around to look at the high and logged ceilings, the grandiose architecture of the Schnee staples that made up all their properties. It had the same tells and give aways, the same make and modelling of the marble grafted fireplace and the wood was similar to what Weiss and Winter had both shown of their dual mansions, summer houses, cottages and apartments decorated and scattered all over the world. It truly was a statement to how infinite Sturm Schnee’s grasp was, or how it seemed.

 

“And so warm too, why are the heaters on at this time?” Blake asked, taking off her trench coat and slowly reaching for her zipper. She was about to take the entire slime black dress off in the middle of the living room. Matte’s eyes popped and they hid their face.

 

They cried out a sharp shriek as Blake continued and slowly zippered down. “Ah!” Came from their lips. “Maybe I should head back to the camp? Or to another room?” Matte asked, shielding their eyes from Blake’s dressless form as her dress seemingly and fluidly slid down her back. She was still wearing a bra and underwear, of course, she was hardly as adventurous as Yang and Winter, but still it threw Matte off a little as they looked, they had only really just met her.

 

“Oh shit!” Blake exclaimed, pulling the shoulder of her dress back up to cover her chest and back. “Sorry Matte! I completely forgot you might not be comfortable with that!” The faunus cried out again. Glynda and Coco were both on her as Velvet and Penny held Matte closer, trying to keep both parties from extreme discomfort.

 

Velvet held Matte a little too close, even flopping her ears over their head. “Weiss is there not a bathroom in this colossal place? Or even a bedroom where we can change in groups so Matte gets cuddles and kisses without seeing us get naked?” The inquisitive bunny asked, seemingly a little more confident than usual, and with a total hare-brain to match her ears.

 

Even Coco was startled, set off foot at how Velvet, passive and submissive Velvet, boldly looked to the warming heiress across the room who was stoking the flames with Pyrrha. She had taken the charge for the first time for as long as anyone had known her, and even the two at the fireplace were shocked. The bunny had to look around to check what they were all staring at, as if she had whipped cream over her flopping ears. “What? What is it? Do I have carrot crumbs in my hair or something? What is it ladies?” Velvet asked, even more boldly.

 

“Who are you and what have you done with Velv?” Nora asked from the sofa, smiling a little devilishly at the new found confidence. It was refreshing, very much so, even though they could all tell that this new front was still above the marshmallowy and soft interior of the rabbit faunus they all loved so much. She was still Velvet Scarlatina, just, a little more confident and straight forward. 

 

The bunny looked around, confused and just wanting to resolve the problem at hand. “Weiss? Bedroom? Bathroom?” Velvet asked again with her hare ears shooting up. 

 

“Bathroom please,” Blake winced as she cuddled Yang in her falling dress. “I want to shower please, and maybe we all do?” She asked into the room and received few nods and hums of affirmation, even a little grab from Yang at her hips, hinting the blonde wanted to shower with her. 

 

Weiss stood up and pointed up the grand staircase the one almost just like the one from her father’s private work retreat manor. “They are scattered all over the house, you won’t miss them Blake darling,” Weiss explained, gesturing the way up to the next floor then around in a large circle of her pointed and frosty index finger as Pyrrha got back to work on stoking the flaring flames of the little fire. It quickly became a cozy little area for the girls as Blake left and then Velvet, Penny, Ciel and Ruby took Matte back to the couch and sat with them, the tanned analyst snuggling into their left side with a pepper of kisses in their neck with Penny, the agender android, doing nearly the same with their right side, even planting a cute and tender peck on their cheek. They were initiating their usual strategy, only this time with more warmth than they were mostly used to and with one hundred per cent added Matte. It was amazing

 

“You comfy Matte?!” Ruby cheered once the redhead and the white-haired heiress were done with the fireplace. They joined the growing mass of bodies on the couch with arms over flesh. Glynda, Winter, and a couple others took to armchairs and love seats around the room with the absent Blake and curious Yang, who had elected to leave her shower alone. The tanned pirate with the neckerchief gave a melting moan of confirmation.

 

The vacant blonde looked off into the remainder of the house, with Neo tugging on the hem of her dress for attention. The muted ice cream girl often tugged on all their clothing for attention instead of ambushing a girl with a hug or mischievous trick.

 

“Hmm? Oh Neo, whatcha want babe?” Yang asked, looking down to her colourful girlfriend with a radiant smiled. Neo smiled back, her cute smile, not the one she had often donned during evil heists and schemes of her previous career days. The tiny adult made a slight grunting hum noise as she looked off to the side. The truth was she was mildly hungry, and with most her girlfriends sitting down and relaxing; the Twins cuddling together right up close to the fire, Emerald resting her pretty and sleepy head in between Winter’s soft breasts inside her dress, and with Penny and Ciel sandwiching the new beautiful person on the sofa, Neo’s childish demeanor took her to Yang, who felt a little like a severed limb. With Weiss cuddling Nora, Ruby cuddling Coco and Velvet, the blonde was a little out her depth. She was going to cuddle with the tall redhead before little Neo had tugged her. 

 

Neo could not tell Yang, not that she was hungry but was both a mixture of tired, jetlagged and even shy to go find the kitchen, so she sighed, a vacant breath. 

 

“What is it babe? Sign it out for me if ya forgot the PDA,” Yang told her and Neo smiled, always touched that the dragon had been the first of her girlfriends to learn sign language from Pyrrha for her. It always meant so much and left a prevalent bond between Yang and Neo. 

 

She did sign it out for Yang drawing Pyrrha’s wandering attention from one of the love seats. Her emerald eyes saw the arms moving and knew that Neo was trying to explain how she was feeling, and saw that the little lady was hungry as she was saying it. It took a little more time for Yang to make sense of it, but Pyrrha saw the process in her mind, and the light bulb light.

 

“Ooooooooh you’re hungry!” Yang proclaimed and gave the small ice cream lady a small smooch on her cheek. Neo wanted more, and cupped Yang’s cheeks, kissing her deeply and full on the lips, with a cute and adorable brand of passion from her small frame. “Hey Weiss? Ya know where the kitchen is Ice Queen? I think lil Neo’s hungry and tired too,” Yang called to the tired snowflake near the pit of the pile of bodies, clutched by Nora and held so tightly. She could not even answer as Yang peered around, her lips were being forcibly stifled by the ginger.

 

She was kissing her, snogging her even so closely and passionately that Weiss could not bear to stop, she was holding the back of Nora’s head, pointed finger running through the girl’s mullet of bright orange curls. And Nora was pushing herself upon the heiress, her hands on Weiss’s back and feeling into her straight and pompous pants. They may have been straight, but Nora and Weiss certainly were not.

 

Yang called out the white-haired woman’s name again, getting nothing but a muffled response from the smitten heiress and then a little groan from the ginger kissing her. “Yang we’re kinda busy here, I haven’t had time with Weiss for weeks! I wanna kiss her till her lips fall of!” Nora called back. 

 

“The kitchen is to the side of the house loves, just behind you!” Weiss called to them swiftly before Nora got back to putting her lips to her lips. Luckily enough Pyrrha got up and walked to them.

 

“It’s quite alright, I’ll help you find it, I could use some tea myself. Would anyone like any?” The flawless redhead asked the room, getting varying responses from the occupants. Weiss, Ruby, Glynda and Coco all asked for coffee, Velvet and Ciel for tea, Winter, Matte and Emerald for Iced Tea and then the Twins asking for simply juice. Pyrrha smiled, and took Neo by her hand, walking with her and Yang.

 

Back in Vale…

 

“You want to do what!?” Ozpin asked, barked more like, in Amber’s face outside the ward, where Jaune and Merc were sitting in each other’s arms overlooking Cinder. She wasn’t any different, not in the hours that had passed since Oz had stopped assaulting Jaune and started doing the same to the bold and brave woman with the cold and hard look in her eyes. She had one plan in mind on how to get Cinder back to the land of the living and as she looked up and down over Ozpin, she contemplated that her attempted suicide actually might have been his doing instead of Cinder’s.

 

A violent rush of blood surged through her body as her eyebrows furrowed and she sternly stood closer to him, on her tiptoes and pointing a finger to him. She wanted to finally snap at him, with the lingering disdain from the day she left the Vault. 

 

“I want to actually fucking do something about this!” Amber bellowed in the old man’s harrowing face, looking at him dead in his hollowed eyes. “I want to get her out of this fucking coma and get her back Ozpin because I actually believe that Cinder is done with whoever it was that turned her evil and I believe that she would not go back! Hell at this point I believe she is more of a good guy than your smug and arrogant ass!” She thundered into the waiting room, earning looks from the orderlies and nurses. She was still on her slender tiptoes to reach even remotely close to his height at that moment she actually wanted to clock him in his slack jaw with the head of her staff. 

 

He did not say anything for a long while, which only infuriated her all the more, until the tall blonde with the depleted aura and patience came through the door again to mediate between them. Jaune was simply, not all there at all, he was in so many other places and he looked so tired, so very tired. “What’s happening?” The paladin asked in such a melancholy and apathetic tone it sounded like he would rather be in Cinder’s position than in this hellish limbo with arguing teacher and half maiden. “Why are you arguing now?” He followed, walking to the coffee machine for the fifth time since Cinder had been moved.

 

Amber at that point calmed down, feeling Jaune’s passive semblance reaching her and mellowing her in a warm blanket of love and chilling feelings. It seemed to have no effect of the enigmous Ozpin however, not a single note of change to his dark and solemn demeanor. What was altering him? It was much more than just a call in the middle of the night. He was more different than that, much more.

 

Before both Amber or Ozpin, or even Jaune could say another thing, the double doors of the ward flung open again, but not for any young students to enter such as Team SSSN, whom Jaune had been texting. But instead it was two oldish men, with a stern and pink coloured woman at their center. 

 

Jaune knew them, hell even Amber knew them, and Ozpin knew them better than anyone. 

 

It was the trio of teachers he had trusted to lead his school, Beacon Academy. In order of rank at the helm was Professor of Artifacts and Archeology, Penelope Peach, followed by Professor Bartholomew Oobleck and Professor Peter Port.

 

“What the Shawcross is going on?!” Peach roared across the way with her updo of greyed black hair wobbling and her glasses teetering over the tip of her nose. “You have Cinder Fall not only reviving the girl in the basement of the tower, but now she’s in a coma? And you did not even tell us Oz? Instead we have to hear it from Headmaster Ziggs?” She followed almost blasting away the entire hospital in the process. He was extremely fortunate she did not use her destructive semblance there and then, with it being almost unmatched by Ozpin’s own.

 

No one dared to cross the usually docile and compassionate Penelope Peach. 

 

He stiffened, and then laxed, walking towards them, storming past Peach and carrying on to Oobleck and Port. “Then come with me back to Beacon, it’s high time I told you all what really is going on,” Oz motioned, with the two males following him but the female professor staying right where she was. It was often the case, when Penelope had to put her stilettoed feet into the messes of others she decided to take supreme charge of the situations and followed them through to their endings. 

 

She stuck up her lip and walked closer to Amber and Jaune, whom she could easily tell from the way they were standing that they needed the most dire and personal of helps. Peach would help them, while Ozpin would explain to Port and Oobleck. “Peter, Barty dear, escort our Headmaster back to his school while I help these poor children with their endeavour, I already know how this one is playing out,” she breathlessly told them.

 

“You’re not coming with us, love?” Oobleck asked after her.

 

“No, I hardly need to sweetie, I can already tell what is going on and these dears will need my help before you and Peter do. All is well I assure you,” she told Bartholomew back again and stood side by side with Amber, who was almost shuddering from the wrinkling in the lines of good and evil. The smaller woman could still feel the tendrils of negativity from Ozpin as Peach’s arm came around her shoulders. Something was not right with that man at all, and she knew it. She cold feel Peach knowing it too, or so the half maiden hoped silently to herself.

 

The taller, larger framed, and elegant professor, the one Jaune Arc had only met a couple of times on the account that he did not ever take Artifacts because Pyrrha had, led the two young adults inside the ward. She was like a breath of fresh air compared to the stale and long winded one that Ozpin had become with his constant harrowing and arguments. And it had only been five hours, although that was feeling more five days in the time of the tired group.

 

“Now, share with Jaune your idea Amber, because I for one believe it can work if you can make it,” Penelope told Amber, slipping her semblance into action and reading the young girl's mind. That was the funniest thing, that Peach’s semblance was telepathy, and she both loved it and hated it; for meeting and dealing with new entities it proved most effective however. This was one of those very times.

 

Amber herself was shocked, as well as Jaune baffled at how Penelope possessed this raw and unrivaled power.

 

“Please there is no time to explain the lengths of my semblance other than the fact that it can allow me to read others’ minds, now Amber please, tell Jaune about your plan to revive Cinder or we may not have the time,” the larger woman explained in a fleeting breath, working over the logistics in her mind. There certainly was not much time, and Amber would have to work even faster if Penelope’s calculations were correct. 

 

Jaune’s deep and shimmering oceanic eyes zapped from the lady in pink and peach to the woman, and his, he did not know what they were at this point. All Amber and he had really settled on was that she had given him a handjob earlier in the day, that she liked him, and his aching shaft, but not that they were dating or anything. Still he looked at her, his expression begging an explanation.

 

He needed something now that he knew she had something in mind. But then Amber herself looked to Cinder, laying there and to her troubled face, into her open mouth, and hoping that at that moment the woman would just wake up on her own. The thought of physically forcing herself into Cinder’s mind once more without a capsule with which to do it in was a nerve shaking one to the half maiden. Yet, the bond she felt, how Cinder had risked her life to save Amber. What could the the mellow eyed girl do if not return the favour? Even more so now that she loved her, she who wanted Amber dead for something as simple as her maidenhood. It was insane. 

 

That made Amber insane, and she was happy enough to be just that for Cinder. 

 

“It’s not going to be easy Jaune,” she told him, biting the Cinder Fall shaped bullet in her mind and stepping off the edge, leaning down to take the woman’s hand. “I have to link my aura to hers again, like in the machine, but I’ll have to do it without it this time, and I’m going to have to fight whatever is in there and hurting her,” she finished, breathing a little elevated as she explained and clutching Cinder’s very much lifeless hand as she did.

 

What was in her head, that was slowly killing her the way Amber could it feel it was? She simply had to find out, she just had to, or it would actually take the woman’s life, and while the brave half maiden had breath in her, she could not and would not let it happen. She turned to Peach, who was smiling a little.

 

“Then we’ll get to work with the arrangements with the hospital. Should be able to go by Oummas Eve, but don’t take my word for it,” Penelope told them, moving off and leaving them to their own thoughts. All Amber was doing was looking closer at Cinder, with Mercury nuzzling up to Jaune, and his bold blue eyes looking at Amber, wondering the same thing she was.

 

What was hurting Cinder so much that she decided to commit suicide? There seemed to be a plainly obvious answer, but only, Ozpin knew it.

 

At Atlas…

 

Ruby came from down the stairs, in her pajamas for the night with Matte and with her girls, watching and probably dipping into Mass Effect once more having taken Penny’s hard drive with them. Currently, Pyrrha, in her own long and frilly pinkish nightgown looking almost identical to Weiss’s, was blasting her own way through a copy of Dark Souls, slaying Hollows left and right and making very good progression to the second of the game's multitude of horrendous bosses. Matte had expressed how much they detested the game and elected to sit out of game night with Penny on the couch until they decided to play Overwatch.

 

“How the fuck can you even play this Pyr?” Matte asked as Ruby came in more than a little curiously, almost as if she had lost something. “Seriously, I can’t beat the first boss without throwing my controller out the fucking window!” The tanned ensign bellowed.

 

Weiss and Winter, the platinum darlings soon saw how absent-mindedly Ruby was looking into all the offshoot rooms of the main living area, searching for something no doubt. She looked so curious, so absent, really like she had lost something close. “Ruby darling?” Winter asked, standing to go console her tiny girlfriend, her sisterly instincts and complex coming into play. “What’s wrong my love? You look as if you lost something,” she followed, asking in her petite and caring tone, that sounded like a dozen pillows coming at the little Ruby.

 

She hugged Winter, with the silver-haired woman kissing her cheek, sensing something might be wrong. “What’s wrong darling you can tell us. Did you lose something valuable? We can help you find it, baby,” Winter cooed, genuinely concerned as the rest of the entourage stopped their games and cuddles and looked at the pair.

 

“It’s Blake!” Ruby announced, breaking her silent sobbing into the beautiful Winter.

 

“Blake? She’s taking a shower darling, she’s somewhere upstairs,” Weiss told her, coming to the pair and hugging the little leader of her team. Ruby was still the leader of Team RWBY even though it never felt it at all with the whole arrangement and all the sex at times. 

 

Ruby’s silver eyes welled up again as she sniffled. “Yeah but she finished aaaaages ago, she scrolled me and now I can’t find her!” Ruby whined, trying so very hard to find her Blakey. Yang obviously was not the only one completely bonded to her more with the revelation that Adam Taurus had met his gruesome and comical demise. Ruby had felt the deeper connection to Blake within the same day, feeling her weight lifted and her heart growing every hour, she wanted to show the Faunus how much she did love her, as much as her elder and warmer dragon half-sister. “Where is she?” Ruby nearly cried.

 

“Hey, it’s okay darling we can find her. She has to be in the house no?” Winter asked turning to her little snowflake. Weiss nodded and held Ruby closer still. There was only one exit they knew of so unless the faunus had been taken herself, then there was only one way out for her. 

 

“But, but, but,” Ruby wailed, while at the same time, a stray cat came down the stairs, slender and shimmering with a black coat and deep yellow eyes that glowed in the dim lights. It was a beautiful creature, but inexplicably random, and seemingly originating from nowhere in particular. “Weiss why didn’t you tell me you had a kitty stashed here?” Ruby asked, snapping from her sad bubble of losing her faunus girlfriend. 

 

Winter was highly confused. To her knowledge they had never kept pets in any of their estates and holdings, none of them, not ever, on account of their father letting them. His policy on pets was the same for his policy for girlfriends or even friends in general. So where had this amazing pet come from?

 

“Wait! What if Blake is this kitty?!” Ruby announced, suddenly awestruck and checking outside. Indeed it was a full moon, but there was no way Blake could be the feline rolling past the leader’s ankles. “Blake is a kitty guys!” The dark redhead shouted again as she leaned down to pick up the small pet. “Blake you look so cute as a kitty! I wanna keep you and snuggle you so close! Aaaaahh! You’re soooooo cute Blakey?!”

 

Silver eyes closed as she squeezed the cat close to her cheek, internally squeaking as she cuddled the feline. Ruby did not even hear the footsteps follow close as Blake came down the stairs in her nighttime kimono. “I’m cute what?” Blake asked, still drying her ears with a small wash cloth. “Ruby that cat is not me, why would you think that babe?” She asked, really wondering where that wild notion came from as she joined the rest of the group. 

 

Ruby’s nature suddenly sunk, and she realized that the cat was certainly not Blake and that Blake was definitely still faunus, and still beautiful. 

 

The cat was put back on the floor and Ruby ran to Blake, snapping her semblance to phase into a flourish of bright and violent rose petals as she zapped to hug and cuddle Blake to the floor in a swing. Matte was amazed, only now seeing Ruby’s semblance in full effect. It was beautiful, and also messy as rose petals lay all over the floor just for the little leader to hug her beautiful faunus girlfriend. And as Matte looked over Blake, on her butt on the floor with Ruby cuddling her midriff, the ensign saw how beautiful the dark-haired woman was. She was very much stunning, a dark flame, still mysterious, and still a dark flavour compared to someone as bright as Penny, whom Matte turned to see and kissed the android’s nose. 

 

Penny blushed, and leaned in to kiss Matte on the lips.

 

“Ruby why would you think I turned into a damn cat?!” Blake cried out as she held Ruby who was hugging her back. She was just a little confused and just a little annoyed, but not by much at all. It was cute, but confusing nevertheless. “And where did the cat even come from?” she asked the girls around her and Rubles. Winter and Weiss looked equally as confused while the feline itself moved and hopped into the sofa, planting itself between Nora and Velvet.

 

“Ya got me!” Nora answered, having her hand on the feline as it purred between her and the bunny faunus. There was a silent vote already taking place over whether they should keep or not keep the cat, but what Weiss was thinking of was more important questionably. What if the cat had an owner? But then again who was he? No doubt the one who had the lodge before the group arrived. 

 

Blake, however could certainly tell that all the girls collectively had decided to keep the pet for the moment and she huffed as Ruby snuggled into her belly on the floor. She could guarantee that if they did keep the kitten, she would never hear the end of the jokes and puns. Her having cat ears was one thing, actually having a cat pet was something else, not to mention the loyal corgi waiting back in Vale.

 

Still, she huffed and lay her head back on the floor with Ruby on her belly, both ladies snuggling lovingly. “So what are we gonna call her? Assuming she’s a she?” Blake asked.

 

“How about Belle if I might suggest Miss Belladonna?” A muffled, caramel and aged voice came from the kitchen, a voice that both Schnee sister knew better than the voice of their own father and mother combined. It was a much loved voice from a much loved man and one they were amazed was not only here but still working for the Schnees. It was not even as if they had to turn to see, they simply yelled a single name together in perfect unison.

 

“Klein?!?!” They roared and sprinted from the couch to where he stood in the kitchen doorway.

 

They ran into his arms, the short, stocky, little pudgy man with the summer brown moustache and the ever changing colour wheel of eyes, his bald head still bald as they remembered when they were younger, Winter especially. The last time the elder sister had truly spoken with Klein had been so many years ago, before she even enrolled in the military to escape Sturm Schnee’s tyrannical rule of his own family and household. His wife’s death had truly driven him insane. But Klein had always been there for both Weiss and Winter, as much as his contract and understanding with his employer would allow him as a mere butler. 

 

“Ho ho, yes Mistress Winter, Miss Weiss, it’s me, I was the one who heated the house for your arrival,” he divulged, clearing the mystery, he must have had a glimpse of the arrangement Weiss had made also with her father and the staff, essentially renting the lodge for the week. She had not told anyone that she was bringing seventeen others with her for the entirety of her stay, but Klein had his suspicions. “I knew you’d be here over Oummas so I prepped the lodge, all but decorations, I assumed you would both elect to set them up yourselves with all these lovely girls. Speaking of which,” he alluded looking over them all.

 

His closed eyed stare came to stop at the blonde in her crop top and short shorts, casually cuddling with Neo on one of the loveseats. Yang.

 

“I need to speak to Miss Xiao Long in private, some important information has come into my possession,” Klein announced coldly as he stared at her. She had no idea what he may have been referring to, in fact, no one did, except Winter.

 

Two hearts sunk, and dropped beats, glacier blue eyes of the elder Schnee harrowing and freezing over as the link finally made its way into her mind. The woman with the red eyes, she looked like Yang, too much to be a random coincidence, and Winter had left her glass before she left she since was in too much of a rush. The woman must have stolen her fingerprints, her lip marks, something, anything. And as the dots connect it made sense that the woman at the Mistralian bar halfway around the world could have only been one person.

 

The woman who was with Winter at the bar was Raven Branwen, Yang’s birth mother.

 

“What do ya need to tell me?” Yang asked the chubby butler, letting him know clearly that if he had something to tell her in private he could tell her in front of all her girls. “Tell me now, I can take it.” She knew for certain that this was not something about her father or uncle, or else Klein would be telling her as well as Ruby, as any good person would. But still her nerves shook her knees as she stood.

 

He braced himself, coughed and then stood straight, looking at her with his own white-blue eyes. “In the early hours of yesterday morning Mister Schnee’s well-guarded personal retreat manor was found in flames and a wreck, with bodies of his guards and Grimm scattered around, with one anomaly; a body that was found in autopsy to belong to one Raven Branwen. She was caught in a large explosion and burnt alive in the process. I am so sorry child,” Klein told her.

 

Yang’s fists clenched, as all the girls and Matte looked to her in complete shock. It was a complete fabrication of disbelief that the blonde was not crumbing in tears in that moment. She had now been told that her birth mother was dead, and had in a single moment gone through more expected heartache than her little sister. Ruby had only lost Summer. Yang had lost Summer and now Raven even if she had been abandoned by her.

 

But in her head, Yang failed to care in the slightest.

 

Omake

 

Taiyang opened the door quickly and practically pulled his once brother-in-law inside in one flourish of rapid and hushed movement. He needed Qrow inside without a single word and if he had to grab the drunk by his collar just to tug him inside the wooden house, then he would in a heartbeat. After what the poor and ragged father had done in the past two days, he was just about done with the drama and was already wishing for his life to return to the bittersweet isolationism it was, with the occasional visit from Barty and Peter, Ironwood, even Merlot himself. Qrow was simply added baggage he did not want. 

 

But it also meant Taiyang was stepping, even swimming right back into the mess he was as a young huntsman, and the years out of it had made him grow accustomed to it happily. He had daughters, not teammates anymore. So much for that. 

 

“Tai you wanna tell me what the fuck this is about?” Qrow asked, dropping and picking up his flask from the floor, a sliver of liquor spilled on the wood. Uncharacteristically Tai did not say anything, which was the dusty old crow’s first clue to knowing the blonde archer was under duress. “What the actual fuck is going on?” Qrow asked him again. 

 

The blonde looked out the window. “Were you followed Qrow?” He asked in a flash, checking the clear and well moonlit yard and forest for any sign of a tail. There was not one, but if what his ex-wife had told him was true, they were working now against professionals who knew almost anything.

 

“What the fuck?”

 

“I asked you were you followed!” Tai snapped at him as the old man sipped from his hip flask. Qrow drank again to show his unimpressed muse. He would waste time neither of them had at this point. 

 

Before he could answer she came from the living room she’d worked hard to build with her hand at her waist, covering the bandaged wound that her once husband had tried to help. She was barely even standing, clutching at the covered wound, but still she managed to speak.

 

“Brother,” Raven spoke harshly to his back.

 

Qrow turned slowly, recognising the voice all too well despite the years they had been apart, Raven gods knew where and Qrow at home, silently serving Ozpin in trying to defend all of humanity from the Witch and her horsemen. All of which, Raven knew, but never cared enough to help, not even with her own daughter, save once, now no more.

 

“Well, well, Raven, good to see you sister. You look like shit, but that’s nothing new,” Qrow jabbed, Taiyang stayed well away from the sibling rivalry that had been there since they even became teammates all those years ago. What he would have given for a Summer Rose in those seconds of silence, how he knew only she would be able to simmer the brooding Branwens. But there was no sign of her, not even in the smell of the house anymore.

 

Raven stared him down as if to jab back, but she relented, grabbing at her crutch and walking strugglingly to the living room. “Come on Qrow, we have a lot to catch up on,” she told him.

 

“Yeah, and so do we Tai, so do we….”


	22. I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Somewhere Over the Rainbow Christmas Special and Volume One Finale all in one!

The radio in Tai’s kitchen was still playing, he had forgotten to turn it off in the morning before breakfast, and his house was looking more and more as it had done about eighteen years ago, with himself in the kitchen with a pan in one hand and then a rolling pin in the other. A Scroll was between his ear and his shoulder now, he was back to being the house husband. Only a lot of the house was different to how it had been back in the day.

There were two people he was cooking bacon for once again, one of them at least a Branwen and his partner. Only this time it was for Raven and Qrow, not for the former and his darling Summer. He missed her more than he could ever comprehend and always wondered, in the week it had been since she had collapsed on his doorstep if she missed Summer too.

Raven had loved her more and been with her longer than Tai had. His mind skipped back to that very Oumas when they had gotten together. The song playing on the wireless had teleported him while the eggs and the bacon were sizzling in his pan.

It was a much better time.

“Snow is falling,” the radio was singing, happily all over the STRQ dorm with Summer littering the room with decorations; tinsel, patterns, chain links and even donning her girlfriend and teammates with paper crowns. She could not wait for the twenty-sixth to arrive. “All around me. Children playing, having fun. It’s the season, love and understanding. Merry Oumas, everyone,” the radio spewed out to a bobbing beat and a catchy rhythm. 

Summer was in her cheerful element, a little ironically, with the season around her being winter, it made no apparent difference, she loved it all the more. It was an excuse to dress her brooding girlfriend in a fluffy Grimm Oumas jumper and drape tinsel and crowns all over her. Raven of course simply sat there and took it, she did not mind since it was Summer, but when Tai tried to give her a dash of Egg Nog and some Corgi styles Oumas cookies, she threatened to nearly turn him into the next batch. 

“We’re gonna have… A party tonight!” Summer sang along with the band on the wireless. It was funny, Qrow and Tai had stolen it from the Teacher’s Lounge a few days prior because the hooded maiden had expressed how much she wanted to fill the dorm and the corridor with cheer. And so far it had done wonders. Attracting Team PYNC, Team GLDN and Team SHMR. “I’m gonna find that girl, underneath the mistletoe,” Summer hummed, stepping over the boxes of decorations and to Raven with a sprout of the green and white budded plant in hand, catching the bird’s lips as she turned into it, a surprise smooch as the team leader was giddily moving around. She then moved off and humming the rest of the tune.

It was a delight, simply the best holiday, just the best. And Taiyang could still hear the music and the cheer in Summer’s clunky movements as he flipped the eggs in the pan. It was pure heaven, and as Qrow helped him work, taking a small sip of the Long Higanbana Iced Tea, he could see the small flakes of white fall from the sky. 

It was a white Oumas that year, as it was when Taiyang snapped back into reality and looked out of the window of his kitchen, a familiar and imprinting presence behind him. 

“You don’t have to make breakfast today Tai,” Raven spoke, final and as an order, her usual headstrong arrogance in her vocal chords. It seemed to the archer that she had lost none of her controlling bravado in the days she had spent away from him, away from the rest of the world, away from Summer too. It was just as she used to be when they were on the team, not when they were dating, but before, when Raven acted as if she hated everyone. But Taiyang knew she was different, he knew she was caring and secretly trying to save absolutely everyone. 

It was all about convincing Qrow to help.

“Are you sure about Jacques?” Tai asked her again, for the upteenth time since she had collapsed on his doorstep, the one that used to hers too. He didn’t even look at her, he just stared down at the eggs and the bacon in the pan. He didn’t even want to ask, Tai already knew that Raven was dead set on the man, she had been in a house he blew up just to murder her for Oum’s sake.

Raven made her way to him, still on her crutch, with her wound doing the best it could with daily healing from her ex-husband. With a look in her face of stark annoyance she turned to him, not pulling him around save for the eggs and bacon he was still making for her and her brother. “Sure about him? Tai what more fucking proof do you need to know that he’s trying actually kill your girls?” Raven asked him in the heaviest voice the man had ever heard; it was like a mattock, a hammer, an absolutely brutal swing right into his face. And it hurt, she could see it in his eyes, he was ashamed he had asked.

She did not let up though, not leaving that hammer on the floor at all, she kept up her small attack as he doubted her. What she did not know was that he did not even doubt her, all Tai wanted was to hear her speak, if anything. He was still getting used to hearing her voice again. “Sturm Schnee - Jacques Schnee, hired a Private Investigator to spy on the girls, all seventeen of them at that fucking townhouse in Vale. Then when I go to his house, he tried to kill me,” she told him in ironclad stern coldness; steel was hard in her voice She lifted up her arm, and the hem of the dark crimson shirt he’d kept forever in a box of hers. It still fitted her. 

“He is not Jacque Schnee anymore, not that man that we all knew and trusted, no more is that the man you grew up with Taiyang,” she told him again, letting her arm down and holding his shoulder, looking him right in the eye. “He is plotting to kill your daughters and the rest of those girls until he can get Winter and Weiss back in his pocket and believe me Taiyang Xiao Long, if we don’t stop him, he is going to kill your daughters.”

He blinked, long and hard, her voice completely hitting him all over and ringing in his head, shaking his mind. He knew all this, but just wanted to hear her say it, and it made him slightly resent her for a hot minute before he opened his eyes to stare her down. 

“Our daughters Raven, your daughters, both of them, remember?” Taiyang asked her, his voice wobbly with trepidation over how she would respond and how their lives were descending into madness once more. But Tai was correct, both were her girls, her daughters; Yang biologically, she had given birth to her first, a spur of the moment event that changed all three lives forever, and then the same when they all married, when Summer told them she was carrying Ruby. By proxy, it made both the Rose and the Dragon, daughters of Raven Branwen. 

The black haired woman had forgotten that in almost twenty years, and being back in the house had made Tai realise it too, having her back. And it was slowly killing him inside that she had completely forgotten that. 

“I… I… Guess you’re right Tai… It’s just been a long time--”

“No one told you to leave Raven. You did that yourself,” Qrow said, joining them with the same brown and iced fluid he had been drinking the same moment over twenty years ago. It was a Long Higanbana Iced Tea and it sent chills down Tai again as he felt the heat getting too much for the desperate eggs and bacon. 

He brought them off of the stove and to the plates, and the blonde silently thanked the Gods for it. It was finally time to get to the small room he had designated an office or study space that was now serving at a conference suite. “Please, Qrow, leave this for a time where my daughters are not assassination targets by the world’s richest man with a moustache,” the dragon slayer pleaded with the dusty old bird. He did not want to strike up yet another sibling argument in the middle of the kitchen. How many times it had erupted before Raven left had been lost from Tai’s mind. A lot of that old version of Team STRQ’s life had been lost to the history. 

Qrow simply stood stiffly and drank the rest of his drink, almost slamming the glass on the ceramic of the counter. He was annoyed, but ready to get the plan started. He wanted to plot out their counter to Sturm’s scheme to utterly destroying everything Tai held dear and to cripple Vale. 

It was time for STRQ to take the fight to the SDC.

Christmas Morning: Vale…

Beep. Beep. Beep. It went almost in tune with the radio spouting the exact same song as it did in the log cabin of the Rose-Xiao Longs back in Patch. And Amber was silently hating it, the constant beeping of the heart rate monitor that never changed in time with the beat of the Shakin Stevens and the song they recorded decades ago. She was twiddling the ball point pen in her hand, almost snapping it as she pressed against the body of the plastic, it was annoying having the wait for the right moment, for Penelope to arrive.

Eventually she did, just her, wide framed and voluptuous curves bouncing in as ethereally as before, with her hair up and smelling of spring fruits in the middle of the cold. She was in alone too, no Jaune, no Merc and no Roman either. They must have been starting the celebrations of the holiday early, or sleeping in and waiting for the girls to return before officially starting their Oumas.

That made the looming hours that she was about to inflict on herself and on Cinder all the more harrowing to Amber. She was not really looking forward to this mental linking, even if it was the only rapid choice of bringing her back from her coma. Amber had to.

“Are you ready dear?” Penelope asked softly and with a tight smile that told Amber even the professor had her doubts and reservations of what was to happen. 

In truth Amber was terrified, and barely wanted to, it was more like she was having to do it, because there was no other way in her mind. What she would have given just for Jaune or Roman to be there, to hold her hand and make sure she was supported once the mission initialised. Now was the time, and Amber sat in the chair next to Cinder in her bed ready, while Penelope closed the curtains and told the orderlies and nurses to leave them be and that she was in control. She rested her head back and began the breathing exercises, breathing regulated and slow, controlled, in and out through nose and mouth. It was harder than she thought it would be.

But then, on Penelope’s soft words, on her guidance into dipping into the aura around them, Amber felt herself slipping, falling down a small rabbit hole as she searched the small yet infinite space in the room. It felt just as it did weeks ago, when Cinder was running in a wind tunnel of ebbing and flowing cosmic infinitesimals to find the smallest glimmer of the light that was Amber. Now she was doing the same, and only now were the infinitesimals clearer and less muddy as she wandered around for Cinder.

She found her in almost no time, and before too much longer she was reaching out to grab the woman she wanted to save, and then, all at once, Amber was rushed into Cinder’s aura. They were joined once again and Amber felt not only the cold of her partner’s coma but the warmth of her usual self. Amber didn’t know how much she had missed the feeling of Cinder, the small brimstone scent and the charring feeling that set a fire in her heart.

Amber was in, inside a labyrinth and surrounded by shadows, and whispers. 

It was a voice Amber had heard only one other time; when she was with Cinder in the machine and running through her memories, her consciousness. She was a woman with marble white skin and cotton grey hair, looking similar to depictions of the Winter Maiden, Amber knew all about that more than almost anyone that wasn’t the Spring Maiden herself. She had red eyes and crumbling flesh, all cloaked in black and accented with a glowing red the same as her eyes, a very red opposite to that of a Champion. This red crippled men’s hearts with fear and hatred.

But it didn’t scare or deter Amber, she was resolute and did not even face the whispers but turn her head away from them to look around for any sign of her Cinder. There was nothing yet, even as the whispers came again. The voice was an angelic one which confused the adventurous half maiden. Why would such a devil speak with the tongue of an angel? It was only when Amber felt the witch come a little closer and into a pseudo-physical form that she did get a mere taste of what the woman was, of who she was.

“Who are you… To enter her mind?” The witch spoke in Amber’s ear, sly and slithering, like a python wishing to hypnotise and remove. Amber was unwanted, a blackhead on the tip of one’s nose. 

Turning around in a flash Amber saw nothing, not even a smoky visage or mirage, not anything. She saw only the black limbo and no witch, until she spoke again behind her once more. “I suppose you’re here to save her? Hmm?” The witch hummed. “She’s already dead, Maiden, let her body catch up with that fact.”

“Says you, you don’t know her anymore,” Amber snarled back, closing her eyes for she still did not know where the woman was in the limbo, which direction she was in. The witch knew nothing of what made Cinder the same woman as her other half maiden counterpart knew her to be. Cinder was new and altered and changed and far better than she was during the suppressed and dark days where she answered to the woman who resembled the Winter Maiden. “She is twice the woman you are, and she is not under your spell anymore witch,” Amber defiantly spat in the woman’s face. 

The witch, her name still unknown to Amber chuckled slightly at the same anecdote. “Not under my spell?” She asked. “And what do you, feeble Fall Maiden know of my power? Of my spell? Cinder… Will never be free of my hold… Amber, and neither will she ever truly be with you. It’ll always be me,” the witch maliciously told the adventurer, her red eyes flaring like molten lava in a dimly lit room, red against black. But she was wrong, Amber knew, she could tell that whatever spell was there, connecting them together was being overcome slowly, and that Cinder’s suicide attempt was to combat it.

“She OD’d so you wouldn’t be able to control her anymore--”

“And then the pathetic blonde had to come home with you and find her, causing this… Rather inevitable conclusion don’t you think?” Red eyes flared again before Amber as she slowly connected every single dot, why the witch was even doing it. 

Cinder had saved Amber, allowing two people to become one Maiden and now Ozpin’s army was growing more and more for the time he needed it against whoever she was. Amber was really a key that ensured that Cinder had to be turned back, and to kill them all before Oz had a chance to take the fight back. Only Cinder decided no, she would not be used as a chess piece again for another magic user. She was going to fight her own little fight, and that was what had led to her taking the pills and trying to take her own life, and then this subsequent encounter between Amber and her witch.

“What’s your name?” Amber asked, seeing the look in her eyes once she had realised that the small maiden girl in front of her knew all. There was no use in hiding anything from her now, she would find out soon enough, and Amber was feeling zealous, feeling full on ambitious. She felt like she could whip out her staff and conjure up a storm of lightning even in this realm to banish the witch. 

It was going swimmingly.

The witch looked all over her, before smiling and laughing a little, still as pompous and arrogant as she always had been. Not this nor anything else could ever phase her. “Very well. My name is Salem, and I’m the Winter Maiden…”

Amber transitioned from a slight confidence, to a completely blindsided shock and surprise. She, the witch, this… Salem was the Winter Maiden? What had happened to her to cause such a shift in both morality, and in physical appearance? What had exactly happened to her? As Amber thought about it, her jaw still slack with horror, she saw that only Ozpin knew the truth, only he could fully explain this. “You… You’re the Winter Maiden?” Amber asked in her horrified look, as if this were the worst case scenario, and in many cases it was. While both Amber and Cinder were the same Fall Maiden, with an unmatched power that maidenhood brought, both had no idea how to channel, tap into or even use the power they possessed. Salem, however looked to have a vast array of knowledge and expertise on how to use her power. 

“Correct, and soon I’ll have your power, as well as the power of the Summer and Spring Maidens,” Salem told her, a devilish and toothy grin on her crumbling face. At that very moment there came a noise of clashing, blades and against blades, and Cinder’s voice in a series of painful screams and grunts. She was here and hurting, being hurt. 

Amber turned around in a flash to see it, Cinder, with her short hair and in her old dressy garbs with the threads across her collarbone, with her twin sabres in hand. Who she was fighting Amber did not know, a girl with mint hair and two tails of it coming down from her head, with an open chested shirt and with two green pickaxes. 

“Cinder!” The other half maiden cried. 

“Best save her from yet another demon dear,” Alem slithered in a snake hiss with a forked tongue behind Amber. “Or she’ll soon be lost to her own thoughts forever.

“This was not even my doing you know, this whole cocoon of self preservation, no. This is the power of the Fall Maiden, saving Cinder from herself, all she need do is defeat Emerald Sustrai in combat and all will be fine,” Salem told the wild and adventurous half maiden below her, smiling the whole while. “Rather sad I think. All she has to do is beat someone who is greatly her inferior. But she won’t, not after what Cinder did to Emerald.”

For a second, Amber stood away, stood close to Salem as if she was slowly being snapped and whipped up into a spell of trance and illusion. “W-What did she do to her?” Amber felt herself ask the Winter Maiden behind her, in a trance before she knew it, the witch’s silky words melting on her ear. She could not help herself and Salem smiled at the young woman’s curiosity. 

“Worse than even Oz did to you my dear. Cinder abused her… Burned her, made her wish she was dead… And Emerald loved her, because she was on fire and evil. The poor girl will never beat Emerald, because Emerald will never forgive her, not ever,” Salem spoke softly still, even finding the futility in holding Amber back. 

It was a split second thought on the witch’s mind but she saw the frivolous nature of all of it. Why bother? When it was so much more fun to let Amber win, instill a sense of victory in her leading into the New Year. Yes. Salem knew it was far better and more interesting to allow the maiden to win now, to save Cinder and have her back.

It would be all the more devastating to them both when the Fall came.

Amber shuddered and ran, pulling her staff from seemingly nowhere and raging as she charged in to do what she came to do, to wake Cinder up. Emerald was the only thing to keep Cinder there indefinitely, and Amber knew her other half would not win, she couldn’t. Cinder was too different now, even if what Salem had told her was true she could still see that the fiery woman was not an abuser, and she would be free of that stigma. Cinder would be free. And as Amber came down with as much force as she had ever done, with the raging storm behind her, striking down Emerald in one swing with no regard for her, Cinder was just that. 

Amber had freed her. 

Elsewhere…

The office was quiet and solitude, with no one except the moustached man himself, Sturm Schnee, previously addressed as Jacques Schnee, inside. He liked the look of his Vale Branch office silent and alone, no one except himself inside, especially after his darling wife’s departure. It made him change his name, made him change everything, and now everything had changed around him once more. His daughters, were against him, his butler was against him, the military institution he had set up with the money of the SDC had turned against him. The only way to remedy this, was to win back Winter and Weiss. At any cost.

“Mail for you Director Schnee,” called out his PA, a woman in a plain suit that was forced to work even on the morning of Oumas. Sturm never gave a toss about the holidays, they were unjustified days of rest that were as ordinary as any other day of the year. Oumas was no different at all.

Sturm was already halfway through pouring himself a cup of darjeeling, his tea of choice whenever he was away from the pleasant cold of Atlas and his primary manor. Now no one lived there, except the staff. 

“Vera, please tell the driver to bring the car around, I’ll be taking the afternoon out on the town,” Sturm called back as calm as anything, sipping his tea meticulously. The secretary affirmed his choice with a nod and headed out, Sturm didn’t even look at the letter for now, he knew what it was and simply looked at the window.

He thought of his dear wife, in her living and student days when he met her, in the Civil College of Mantle when they were young, when he was studying business to build one and when she was an art student. Sturm remembered the long, frilly, weightless white dresses she wore even in the bleakest of winters. It was as if the woman, the angel in his mind, would never be cold, for she was born of the sun that shone in Vacuo and Menagerie. And loved her so much, more than anything she brought to him, like the SDC itself. 

‘You know you could do with something to lighten the office Jacques. It’s so very dull in here.’ She would always say when taking the trips to one of his offices, back when she had given the company to him while the top was restructured. Her father was furious but she didn’t care, she knew that Jacques was the man for the SDC. That was why he took her last name and not the other way around.

He would always tell her she brightened the mood with her smile, that he would only ever need that and his office would be brighter than any other. So he had a portrait of her painted and hung in every one. And they had all been taken down the day Weiss had left for Beacon Academy, the day his plans for her and for Winter had been truly dashed.

Sturm looked out among the thatched and terraced townhouses towards the outskirts of Vale and casually took a glance at the opened envelope. He let out a hum and sipped the rest of the darjeeling which was bordering on coldness.

“I can see their house from here,” he said to himself.

Stepping inside the townhouse was much like stepping into Winter or Weiss’s rooms when they had left, when he was truly alone, only this time they were coming back to it, and he would have been there. The complex and meticulousness of it made him high off of the control. Knowing where they lived and where they slept, ate, fucked and even loved each other. He could feel it all, the sweet and sugar in the air with the wisps of love. It made the man seethe.

Knowing it was his daughters, against his own wishes and morality, that had been living there for months and endless nights, living with and loving women. Women. And they were happy. Happy, in love, in bed and with women. It was something that Sturm Schnee could not comprehend or even grasp. It was just so unnatural.

But he was there, Sturm Schnee, sitting on their sofa in the middle of the living space, then walking up the stairs into the shared bedroom and sitting on the bed, sinisterly. He wanted to own it all, to own them, as he had owned his daughters at a time, back at Atlas where he could talk to them, control them to do what he wanted and prolong the Schnee name and legacy all the further.

If only he had fathered a son…

The driver came up to the bedroom, a plain man in a plain black suit as Sturm was sitting on the Empress Bed with his head looking to the floor. “Sir? Your orders?” The driver asked, just as Sturm looked up to smile at him through his horrid and rotten stache. He looked warped, cracked by the complex of being in his daughter's’ house where they and their harem lived. How little he understood, it was anything but a harem as so many stupidly believed.

“Bug the house, I want every single room with cameras and recording software. Bedroom, bathrooms and everywhere else. If these homosexual abominations take a shit, if so much as a hair falls from their heads, I want to know about it have you got that?” Sturm ordered in his thunderous voice, standing and walking over to the wardrobe. Reaching in he saw the item of clothing immediately; the only article Winter had managed to salvage before she left Atlas. The sweater that her mother had knitted for her for the last Oumas she spent with them. Sturm was taking it.

“Yes sir,” the driver responded as Sturm left the room and walked back into the living area, turning on the television and waiting. He would remain, until the job was finished, on their couch, watching their television and gorging himself. It was thrilling for him and his ego. And they would never know.

“Merry--”

Back in Atlas…

“--Oumas Everyone!” All eighteen shouted as they raised their glasses to a holiday toast, even Ruby having her glass filled with champagne, her one and only drink she was allowed on Tai’s orders weeks ago. 

They had had the holiday gifts flown in, prepared with a private company to be boxed and wrapped in carefully selected wrapping paper. One gift to each girl per girl, then adding the gifts from family. The massive tree was surrounded by piles upon piles of presents, and mainly because Taiyang, Sharp and Piper, Oobleck and Peach had all got most if not all of the girls something. Ruby herself was adding lots to her collection of plushies with so many cute little and one massive Grimm plushies. 

As they were arranged, all sitting around the room, from left to right: Ruby was with her new collection, Weiss with her beautiful elder sister all fondling new dresses and paintings of all the girls, even a nice and lovely tea set that was bought by Yang and Blake. The very same blonde and the faunus were exchanging loving cuddles too and conversation. Ruby had bought her elder sister a beautiful action figure of a popular tech enhanced super hero that was circulating, with the beautiful raven black-haired Blake casually tossing a ball of yarn in her hand that Emerald of all people had gotten her as a joke. She asked as much when she opened the small box and almost everyone including Matte had burst into laughter. What everyone else had spoiled dear Blake with was new books, lots of them, and not just limited to the hardback special print of Ninjas of Love Book III: The Knight’s Night.

In a moment, Glynda quickly turned up the dial on the radio, and it began to spout a different song as to the one during Tai’s Patch breakfast. “Are you hanging up the stocking on your wall? It’s the time where every Santa has a ball. Does he ride a red nosed reindeer? Does a ton up on his sleigh? Doe the fairies keep him sober for the day?~” The radio sang as they all sipped their wine.

Coco was unwrapping boxes upon boxes of new outfits and jewelry to stuff inside her weapon, which of course was her portable jewelry box. The girls and Matte had all chipped in to get Velvet a new and improved camera that could maintain the memory of weapons for her to use, as well as new pajamas and some adorable bunny slippers in a mocha brown. For Emerald it was a lovely set of fake dust crystals that were ornaments, brooches and hairpins, she loved them and the grandeur of them. Neo was difficult, but the girls draped her in new clothes with a stunning summer hat, frilly and bowler-like to remind her of Roman’s little old thing, as well as a new PDA and a new scroll to boot. 

As they continued to drink and converse, all having the best and loving of times as the sound of the jolly guitar kicked in on the radio, Weiss, Blake and Ruby all approached Yang. They were still a team after all and could not leave her with just an action figure, movies, arm upgrades and a new jacket that reminded her of Tai. 

They all pulled another box from under the tree and gave it to the blonde, sayin nothing. In shock she opened it ad instantly burst out into tears, dropping the framed picture the box contained and scooped all three of them for a hug with her new arm. “I fucking love your three so fucking much,” she grunted as she sobbed into Ruby and Weiss’s shoulders.

It was massive for her, a semblance of home, of team and of where it all began. It was a picture of Team RWBY the day they had been assembled over two years ago, in their order all smiling for the school promotional picture. Yang was smiling he goofy grin as she had Blake in a close hug, showing off, with Weiss pouting beside Ruby as she pointed to the camera. Blake’s look was passive, but it was the one they had all fallen in love with. 

They were all Team RWBY, as RWBY as they would ever be.

Glynda turned the music louder and proposed another toast, with all except those who were not still opening gifts obliging, and then getting into position behind the tree and looking at Pyrrha. The redhead herself was lining up all of her weapon maintenance gear they had gotten her, as well as a whet stone and grinding sandpaper for Milo, wax for Akouo and others. She looked up at them as Team RWBY, Coco and Velvet, and Glynda smiled. 

“What is behind you ladies?” Pyrrha asked with a curious smile on her face. Nora looked around and burst out laughing, even toppling over her board games and new jacket and old age pink dress skirt, as well as her fingerless gloves. By the time they all moved, even Emerald and the Twins were laughing, as it was a massive beanie chair sized plush of an Ursa, one that was almost as big as Pyrrha and certainly wider than almost the tree. It was huge and Pyrrha was in awe, with wide emerald eyes and a slack jaw. 

And then, just like the dance of last year, she burst out cackling her beautiful and melodic laugh. “Oh my gods ladies, you did not have to!” She cried,before kneeling and waddling to Weiss and Ruby to hug them so dearly and closely. Even on her knees Pyrrha was almost as tall as them both.

“We didn’t, but come on we weren’t honestly going to just get you stuff for Milo and Akouo, we had to make you laugh like this,” Blake told her, pushing the Ursa towards Pyrrha. The redhead moved and cuddled it, purring at the soft fur.

Ruby looked at it puzzlingly however. “Yeah, but honestly I don’t have any ideas as to how we’re gonna get it through customs,” she remarked. It was an almost weird comment from her, so adult and thoughtful of the situation, analytical, or something that Ciel or Winter would say, except it was Ruby, the youngest. It was seemingly hilarious and probably because the wine was going to all of their heads. Except Glynda’s.

The professional looked to her horde of spirits and wines they had all gotten her, a pure treasure trove of alcohol. Her lime green eyes turned almost red with delight, the first time Glynda had remitted into her raw emotive state like when she was a heavy drinking, and even drug taking teen. She was a wild student at Beacon back in the day, something Port as well as Peach, could attest to. 

Ciel and Penny were harder to buy for of course, for the android simply wanted items to make her feel more real, and Ciel a keeping device of all her time. Thus in the end they elected to get the analyst a lovely watch, not too expensive but lovely in every dimension, as well as a diary, a schedule and a lovely shirt that read ‘World’s Best Ray of Sunshine’ for her last name. It made her almost cry when she wore it, one of the first times they had all seen her thus. Penny was different. The girl’s showered her in her first palettes of makeup along with some socks, for she never wore them, a bottle of expensive wine, as well as lotions and oils for her hair and her skin.

But what really made her feel touched, and feel real, was what Winter and Ciel presented to her, with grand smiles on their faces that spread all around the room once Penny realised what it was. Her own personal modification kit, but for cosmetic appearances. It was to enable the ginger beauty to give herself dimples, or more freckles, or scars or birthmarks or such, to make her feel real. “Ah! I love it! Thank you so much!” She had cried and cuddled the two, as everyone was cuddling everyone when they received their gifts. 

It truly was the best of times, in the middle of the worst of times, and all eighteen of them had no idea what was happening all around the world, Klein barely knew either.

As Melanie and Miltia opened their new gifts, skirts and upgraded weapons with which to enter the Vytal Tournament with, Yang looked to the butler, who was lovingly handing around a batch of eggnog he had whipped for them. She thought of what he told her days ago, about her mother. About Raven being in the shadows for all this time and then winding up being caught in the explosion of the backup Schnee Manor.

It made no sense to Yang, none at all, yet it was true, as true as she had ever heard it. But then there was another thought that hit the young blonde’s mind as she looked around at the stunning Faunuses and the beautiful Schnees, her lovely sister and the android who was busy giving herself more and more freckles to start off with. She looked to Pyrrha, the most calm and collected woman in the group in Yang’s opinion; and then Yang thought about what they had done before, her, Blake, Pyrrha and Neo. 

The veteran dragon thought of that night the four of them descended on the warehouse of the White Fang in the pouring rain, all to remove one man from all their lives… And how they had succeeded. How Yang had succeeded by driving his own red blade through his body and leaving him there to die, and then how he had. The guilt was still rife within her, but it made her eyes turn redder as she thought of it. Pyrrha noticed and shot her indomitable blonde a graceful smile, warming her heart and bringing back out those lovely lilac eyes while it came to Matte opening their gift.

Theirs was by far the most exotic and last minute thing, ordered and shipped in as little time as possible from a store in the middle of Vacuo thanks to Blake and to Neon, who had both been there and knew that it would make the perfect gift. All for their new partner, their new addition to their seventeen. It was sad, to know that Matte could not return to Vale with them, thusly this was the parting gesture, the gift to leave them with.

It was a baby Deathstalker of all things, an actual live baby Deathstalker, tiny and everything, with the yellow stinger of her tail surgically removed and grabbers neutralised by being blunted.

She was designed and made to be a pet, and a pet she would be, for the lovely Matte Skye. “Awww she’s so tiny! She’s a baby!” Matte cooed as they looked into the glass case where the Deathstalker was nuzzling in. Amazingly she seemed very docile, even at peace as if having no desire to attack everything and anything around her, which happened to be almost twenty people. It struck them all except Matte as odd. Was this even possible? To domesticate Grimm into being docile and able to live with? Ciel and Glynda shared a look and noted their findings in one of the notebooks Ciel had with her.

“Is she really for me?” Matte double checked before they attempted to take the baby Grimm out of her small case. Ruby and Penny were shooting the ensign beautiful smiles and nods of approval as they held the case towards them. Then all at once Matte bravely took the small Deathstalker out of the case and said hello to her on their hand, the scorpionic arachnid wiggling her body and even made a small twiddling noise. Ruby and Penny both cooed. “Awww she likes me!” Matte cried out and moved their nose in so they could canoodle with their little Deathstalker. “I’m gonna call her Babu!” The feisty ensign announced to the group as they sipped their eggnog and got comfortable on the couch for the schedule of Oumas television before the dinner was ready.

They needed three turkeys and even more by the ways of added meats and pigs in blankets to complete the dinner.

“Aww thank you so much guys, you fucking rock, seriously. I love ya’ll,” Matte edged out among tears as they funneled their new pet back into her case. She would accompany the pilot in training back to the Academy when the holidays were over, and they were ecstatic about that now. 

Penny cuddled the ensign from the front, kissing them a little boldly as the small heiress hugged them from behind. “It was our pleasure. We had to make sure you had something of us at the Academy with you until we see you at Vytal,” Weiss told them, kissing their cheek and cuddling close, suddenly feeling meek and warmed by the holiday spirit. She remembered how it was the best holiday she had had in so long.

Ruby yawned, cuddling with the taller Winter as Weiss and the couplet with her transitioned to the couch. Yang piled on, huddling with Pyrrha, still losing her mind slowly to the thoughts of her mother and how she failed to care, it was really eating at her within moments and carried on into dinner. And it was a good dinner indeed, filled with festive cheer, a bubble of love, even tears were spilled when alcohol and toasts were declared, and all of them knew there was no other place they would rather be, even Klein. 

At Patch…

Qrow leaned forward with his fingers entangling like a businessman, and Raven scowled at him for that. She had learned to hate businessmen over the past fourteen years and particularly in the past weeks. Even Taiyang growled just a little with the blood of the dragon reeling within him. 

Her plan made no mention of Ruby or Yang, except one fine detail that made his draconian blood simmer within him. She wanted to use them as the perfect bait. She wanted them to enter Vytal when they called later that very day. 

“You can’t be fucking serious Raven,” Qrow rolled towards her, taking a rather large sip of the equally large brandy that Tai had prepped for him. Whiskey was not his drink and thus it was nowhere in the house, the blonde elected for a more slightly stereotypical of spirits. It wasn’t as if Qrow gave a damn, it was booze and it would plunge him into his happy medium of constant ensloshment that was the dusty bird’s everyday. “We’re not going to let you use your own daughters as bait for Schnee,” he told her sternly, letting Tai lean more forward with his look of intense anger turn to one of supreme shock that she would notion it. 

How low had she really sunk? To actually want, or need to use her own daughters just to draw out the man she had spent the past four days explaining to them. Explaining how evil he was and why Ozpin had not yet told Qrow about him and why he needed above all else to be utterly destroyed once and for all. And every night after each of those four days, when Tai was forced to share his bed with her again, had he sensed more and more of a personal attachment to this mission. What had actually happened to Raven in fourteen years?

Tai only wish he knew or could at least extract from her. He needed to hear it from Raven, not anyone else, if they even knew.

“Why do you want Vytal to go ahead?” Taiyang asked her, taking a very gentle sip of his own. “If you say Jacques - Sturm is that bad that he would use it to abduct the Schnee sisters and kill everyone?” He followed, leaving the floor for her to answer, wondering how her sociopathic and elevated but also tyrannical thinking would spin this into her favour. If she even could, but he knew she could exactly, she was a very meticulous woman, and that was why Tai had not thrown her out after healing her.

She took a sip of the brandy, from the decanter, not her small glass and exhaled from it longingly. “Because of Ruby’s silver eyes,” Raven stated matter-of-factly, even with a slight smirk on her face that, if he was not so perplexed by the mention of his daughter’s eye colour, would certainly make Taiyang rage so much his hair caught fire. Just like his brutish daugher who right now would not believe this meeting was taking place. It made him wonder how good a day she was having with Ruby as well as the rest of his new girls, opening all the presents including the whole care package he had to talk to James about getting through customs. All it was was their entire Oumas dinner flash frozen with ice dust crystals, but they needed him to pay for it; feeding now eighteen girls plus a butler and a new cat pet was going to cost too much. 

Both Qrow and Tai leaned in, again coming back to the silver eyes comment, but both leaned in for different reasons. Qrow out of intrigued understanding, and his blonde brother-in-law and ex-partner out of angered confusion. 

He knew nothing of Ruby’s silver eyes and his mind was propelled back to Summer, and how her eyes were the very same.

“What the fuck are you talking about Silver Eyes?” The blonde and elder firecracker asked his ex wife with his own eyes dipping even darker, but not from combined Branwen blood, just his own intense and erupting fury. She was talking about Ruby in such an objective term that made Tai’s stomach backflip more and more as he thought about the crimson-eyed woman in the same room as the child she had helped Summer give birth to. And what a day that was. 

Raven took another sip, a rather long one, as did her brother, who knew all about them and did not want to be the one to be uncovered and not have told Tai a thing about not only his daughter, but his long lost wife too. It did however strike a small chord in the younger twin’s mind. One question that peaked his interest as he turned to look at his sister all over. It was a fairly educated question, as never in the tribe did they tell the Branwens about the Silver Eyed Warriors, not ever, and he doubted that Summer even knew of her abilities. She never once used them at Beacon when STRQ was around, at least, if Tai knew nothing, then it was a good possibility that not even Summer knew. Because why would she not tell her only husband and yet inform her wife? Was Raven and Summer’s bond greater than Summer and Taiyang’s? Even after the bird left the roost?

No. It was safer to guess Summer knew nothing, which made Qrow ask again his inquisition. How did Raven know?

“Back in the days of the war there was only one thing before the inclusion of Dust that the Grimm did fear - Warriors of a special kind of metal they were made, carrying weapons of light and eyes of silver with which to smite down their enemies. It was said these Warriors were killed off after the war with the Grimm. Obviously that was wrong,” Raven explained, without even explaining, which told Taiyang nothing and only made him all the more confused. What powers did Ruby have that were outside her spectacular semblance of flashing into a phasing stream of rose petals? He wished Raven would give him a straight answer, and she almost did. “It means that Ruby can do things… What exactly I don’t know but all she needs is a catalyst, and Sturm can be that, if he tried to tear her little circle of girlfriends apart, she would unleash her power on him,” she finished explaining, leaving even more fury in Tai.

He stood up, the tips of his blonde locks simmering and turning to flashy embers on his head, light trails of smoke rising up, almost setting off the alarm. “You want her to kill Jacques?!” He thundered across the table. 

“She’s a fucking huntress Tai, she’ll be killing people sooner or later trust me honey,” Raven shot back, fully prepared for his salvo. If anything she anticipated it and had a response ready to go since the day she arrived. It was not as if Raven was wrong too, Ruby would have to kill, more than a lot if this whole Silver Eyes prophecy was correct. Tai just could not think of that, especially when the first target Raven was wanting to steer into the team leader’s crosshairs was Jacques Schnee, a very good friend, even if it was one Raven insisted no longer existed.

But that was a long time ago.

“She won’t kill him. I’ll go along with it, but we have to be there, and she won’t kill him, I know she won’t,” Tai announced, sitting down again and calming himself. He had faith in his daughter, she was too sweet to kill, and he knew she would grant even the most nefarious of villains mercy before she grew up. 

Raven scoffed, drinking some more and leaning back, not smiling. Instead she looked into her brandy, maybe sensing the weight in his doubt, in his backpedaling and what he wanted her to do. He wanted them to be there, at Vytal, in the audience at all times, which of course would not cost anything for friends of James and of Oz, and while she could disguise herself as a raven, she would still have to see her. Have to see Yang, fighting. Raven only hoped there would be no meetings, no nothing of any kind between mother and daughter, the bird could not handle it, the thought made her wheeze and her chest seize up. 

It was not that Raven did not want to be Yang’s mother. It was that she could not be her mother.

Qrow looked at her again, gently sipping the last of his brandy and taking the decanter from her to pour another glass. He knew this was still going to be a long talk before they were ready to leave again. “How the hell do you know Ruby has all those girlfriends?”

Vale…

Sturm was back in his office by the time the sun was wanting to settle, his contemptness meaning that the holidays for him were reduced to one other day. He didn’t care for cheer nor for thanksgiving or love or happiness, even less so all day as he bugged the townhouse his own daughters lived in.

It was the first scraping step he was taking to grabbing his rebellious daughters by their wrists and tugging them back to the life he would lead for them.

Winter would be back with him and married to a suitor he had his eyes on for a while, a young and handsome boy with a rich family and secure future, one that she would share and then build upon for him. For Weiss, the same, to the Marigold family, a highly influential collection of voices that held weight in the civilian government of Mantle. Ironwood would hold his tongue and fall in line or Sturm would pull his funding and sever contracts with the Atlesian Military. The cyborg would wither and die with no allies when the time came to cut the heads off of the hydra all at once, killing it. And Sturm Schnee would be the spear wielder… With the woman at his back the spear.

In many ways, she reminded him of his wife, as he loved her; she was a naked flame, and cold as ice all at once. Perhaps that was why Jacques Schnee had pledged his allegiance to her despite the knuckle draggers that made up her inner circle, all of which he wanted gone. Especially the physician and the faux faunus. The brute with the fists that could shatter metal Sturm did not mind, but not the others. And especially not the traitorous Cinder Fall.

She would die certainly too, before the end of the upcoming tournament, they had made that promise together. To murder the half maiden in the most horrific of ways right after severing her from her darling paladin. At the same time all of the girls would meet their end, and Salem knew how…

“You’re so tense Jacques,” the witch slithered as she appeared from the shadows in a haze of mist, like some kind of Grimm Wraith she could conjure from thin air. To anyone else her cold and gripping, almost enthralling words would make them seize up and chug like the dying engine of an automobile, but not Sturm. He was made of a different kind of metal than any normal human being, and that was why she had sought him and captured his attention. He was useful in every single way to her, even though the entire arrangement they had constructed was an utter facade. Salem could not trust him as far as she could throw him, and he neither. Especially not now that he had a semblance, the semblance of his wife’s family.

He had a conjured a small glyph dagger in his palm and was toying with it as he looked out of the main plaza window of his office on the highest floor. “My name is Sturm… Jacques cannot be the one to do this now, he is dead. He died when Winter betrayed him,” Sturm sighed and breathed to her as she slithered to behind him. He clenched his fist hard and fast as soon as he felt her puppeteering fingers and palms wrap themselves over his stony and rock-like shoulders, and he even cringed when she pressed her crumbling frame against the back of his. She was testing him surely.

When she embraced him, kissed his jaw, he knew she was demonstrating how cruel she was. 

“Then Jacques is dead. Good for you, because this is how we proceed,” Salem told him, whispering in his ear like the real siren she was, all while she held him close like some kind of toy. The CEO realised the sad and even bittersweet irony in it, in her display as she held him. He was a toy, at least in her mind, and with the white of his hair and his moustache, looking back at at him through the paned reflection of the window, he saw it. Sturm looked like a nutcracker doll, with Salem the girl opening it on the holiday morning. It was his own little slice of Oumas.

She kissed him, turned him and kissed him deeply with a severe disdain in both their tastes. It was horrid, and therefore sublime, making no sense whatsoever. And yet it happened - was happening. 

“Do your part Sturm, and Vale will fall, and your daughters will be yours once again,” Salem told him before heading back to the shadows of the room. He turned again and then back to her.

“What about the rest of them? What of the girl with the Silver Eyes?” He asked, referring to Ruby. Obviously Raven was not the only person in the world who had been doing their research,and his voice trembled a little with void regret, maybe he knew how old Ruby was. But did he really care?

Salem didn’t even turn to acknowledge him, all she did was smile so he could not see, and then even more, did not bother to answer him. She simply walked on and soon enough Sturm Schnee was once more alone, bringing forth the small glyph dagger in his palm. Would the Gods have mercy on him? After this? He highly doubted it as he looked onwards to the house in the town, the one he had bugged. If they didn’t have mercy on him, Sturm would not bother care. 

“If you want something done right…”

Above From Dust Till Dawn….

Cinder was wheeled in, still weak and frail from her suicide attempt but completely, completely alive and smiling more than she ever had, all because she was back and she was awake. And that because as she was slowly wheeled into the main apartment room, as small as it was, the entire halls were decked to the nines and the stereo system Roman might or might not have stolen as a present for himself was spewing out the best of holiday songs. Merc and Jaune were already singing along with it as Cinder covered her face and began to sob.

“Oh when the snowman brings the snow, well he just might like to know… He’s put a great big smile on somebody’s face!~” They sang cheerfully, displaying the small huddle of wrapped up gifts that no one had opened. They had all waited for her, all of them. Without Cinder there would and could be no holidays, but she was here at last and she was sobbing happily. Amber leaned over from wheeling her and kissed her greatly, Cinder taking hold of her girlfriend’s head and holding her to close. Jaune kissed Mercury, who was donning a sparkly and spiffing candy cane coloured mini dress and the accompanying works, stockings, gloves and hat, even a stuffed bra. And he passed exceptionally well, even smelling and feeling like a woman. They all loved it and him too. 

From her wheelchair, Cinder squealed with happiness as party poppers were popped and the stereo system continued to spew out the loving and cheerful music. She loved it, it was amazing and filled her to the brim with joy and euphoria. 

“So what the fuck are we waiting for?!” She cried out over the music as Amber sat on her lap and Roman cut the turkey in his pink ‘Shag the Cook’ apron that he also may or not have stolen. They all laughed, Amber kissing her again with Jaune doing the same. “Someone get me some turkey with the works! I am starving and I’ve been in a coma for almost a week, I need me some food!” The half maiden announced, looking to Amber and then to Jaune.

They both gave her a nod, the former biting her bottom lip, as if giving Cinder permission to give some news. Roman and Merc saw it and looked confused.

“What’s occurring?” Mercury asked, handing Cinder her plate piled with rashes of turkey and with all the trimmings, stuffing, puddings and roasties, veggies and bacon wrapped sausages. Something was definitely up in the air and he needed to know, sensing that all was not normal with Cinder as she sat with the biggest grin on her face.

Was she dying? No, she certainly wasn’t, rather quite the opposite as and took her knife and fork and began dipping into the turkey breast rashes and eating them still with her smile. It was unlike her, she seemed oh so happy, and with finally good reason to be. 

“Well… I guess, something happened and I’m so lucky that it did, and that I didn’t mess it up, but… I’m eating for two now,” Cinder told them all, earning giddy and childish looks of glee from her boyfriend of blonde and girlfriend in her lap. “Yes Roman, Merc. We’re pregnant!”

And finally, Atlas…

It was night time there before too long, a full day of eating, opening gifts, singing along with the Oumas mix of music on the radio that drained their voices, only for the booze and sodas to revitalise them. Now it was time for the party to get into full swing, with all of the girls wearing that one outfit they had brought for the day. It was a haze of Oumas lights and merry singing, even Babu was dancing in her case above the fireplace.

Ruby was spinning, in a flurry of rose petals that were all getting everywhere, not that anyone cared that she was firing off her semblance. Blake was doing the same, dancing with Matte and Velvet at the same time, it made them all smile. The redheaded champion had used hers and was stuck with the fridge magnets and about three frying pans in her tipsy haze as Yang danced with her too, hair on fire; Pyrrha hadn’t showed off her trick since she was twelve and in a different body. It was nice to finally show it off while she had breasts, spelling out ‘Motorboat’ from the letters. That addition made Nora cackle after she obeyed.

“Which bitch ordered cookies?!” Neon cried out as she ad Neo came in from the kitchen with three baking trays that Klein was whipping up. Of course Ruby screeched and shot across the room. Weiss too, and then eventually the rest of the girls all for cookies… Except for Winter and Glynda, who were nestled lovingly on the balcony upstairs with a bottle of Glynda’s red wine to themselves. 

Something was slightly eating at the tutor, and not the fact that she had allowed Raven to steal her fingerprints and die at the hands of her father. Not the fact that Vytal would be a really hard time for all of them and not that if she lost her job and the townhouse she would literally be on the streets with not a penny to her name. Not anything but one physical thing about her.

But one.

She cuddled close to Glynda, resting her head on the professor’s shoulder, sighing contently as they looked up at the open sky, the clouds no longer they with the snow build up enough already. They could see the gaping wound in the sky that was the nearest nebula, the constellations and the millions of stars that had all most probably died millions and millions of years ago. It made them feel so small, happy and small, how they liked it. They prefered feeling small in the grand scheme of things because their lives were so big. Big and filled with so much goings on between the school, and the girls, and everything else that made their lives scream so loudly. It was the perfect view for the most perfect of days to end the most perfect of years. 

While it had been so long, so unbearable for all of them at one stage or another, it had become the greatest of years for all of them, and their lives were improving tenfold. Even as Winter looking into her glass, tossed it off of the balcony in a swing, moving her body up and to kiss Glynda securely on her lips, pressing her frame deeply onto her. It was a little shocking, a little all at once, but Glynda let it flow, let the kiss make true and for their lime and peppermint tastes to blend into a lovely fusion. 

“Glynda…” Winter mouthed, her glacier eyes melting away and her truth coming out. “Glynda I’m late,” she confessed.

The professor gasped. “You’re late? You’re pregnant?” Glynda asked, double checking to make sure. This was no laughing matter or anything to joke about, and it was Winter and not even Glynda could tell how it had happened. They were all women, and she highly doubted Penny had packed her kit, they had said they would not have needed it in Mistral. “Really?”

Winter nodded, smiling. “Yes I’m pregnant, and I don’t know how it could have happened, but I don’t care, I’m happy for it,” she told her girlfriend. At that moment another voice came from the glass pane doors leading into the upper floor.

“Pregnant?” Ciel Soleil asked. “Really?”

“Really really Ciel,” Winter smiled again, biting her bottom lip in beautiful happiness as the tanned analyst called down to the others, informing them of the news. And the rest followed exactly how Winter wanted it, all of her girlfriends quickly rushing up the stairs and to the balcony to pile onto her and kiss her all over, cherishing her. It was beautiful and all the elder Schnee wanted, especially when Weiss got to her and kissed her the deepest of all, the happiest of all of them, that her sister was the pregnant one, and the first one to bear it. No matter what their father said this child would not be anything of his, it was to be happy and beautiful and enjoy life.

It was the perfect end, to the perfect holiday. To the perfect year.


	23. Driving Home for Christmas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Volume One Bonus Chapter. How the DRAGONZ Girls and the Hot Herbal Coffee Boys spent their Oumas Eve, with some mild and not so discreet world building and Volume Two hyping thrown in

“Dew, honey, we’re gonna get there, don’t you worry, I promised you we’d be there before your mom and dad arrive!” Nebula yelled down her scroll over the sound of beeping car horns and ambulance sirens, even airships overhead.

She, Gwen, Arslan, Lie Ren and Fox Alistair were all piled into the front and back of the galactic purple haired team leader of Team NDGO, all spending Oumas in Vale of all places after they had just spent a lovely two weeks in Mistral. Even running into Team RWBY and the rest of the Rainbow Girls was not enough to make them stay however, and thus they returned, setting up holiday shop in Yatsu and Fox’s apartment outside of the Beacon Campus. Only Nebula and her entourage were not there. No, they were about thirty miles away from the apartment with various bags and parcels in hand and in the trunk of her convertible.

And they were stuck in nightmarish traffic just as a snowstorm was looking to blow in. On top of that, they were all trying to race home to the rest of the herbal draconic combo of an Oumas party before Dew’s parents arrived with their turkey and dinner for the morning. It was an actual worst case scenario and Nebula gripped the steering wheel of her convertible tightly. Oh, how she wanted it to magically transform into an airship so she could fly over the traffic.

“I swear to the gods,” Gwen muttered to themselves in the back seat, teeth grinding as they held the toy bulldozer they had bought for Nebula’s little brother. “When my dad becomes Mayor of Vacuo Central, I’m going to fucking eradicate traffic during the holidays. I want to fucking kill something,” they moaned with their usual menacing look in those muggy and auburn eyes of theirs. It was never wise to cross Gwen Darcy, not ever. Even Lie was startled at the monotonal threats that came from Gwen’s lips, all directed at the hundred or so drivers ahead of them.

Nebula’s head thudded on the steering wheel for the third time since they gotten stuck in the infernal jam. “Fuck!” She shouted out, over the open roof as the snow fell, all the passengers beginning to get cold.

“C’mon Neb, it’s freezing,” Arslan called from shotgun, trying to calm her girlfriend with a tender touch of the shoulder. The team leader breathed, remembering she was in command of the rust bucket that was her car and thus clicked the button on the dash to extend the roof.

Only that failed too, spectacularly and she let her head thud again, ultimately beaten. “Ars, honey, please just kill me, or tell me we can call our CEO daddy like Weiss Schnee can,” the purple dressed beauty groaned with her head still on the wheel, not wanting to live while she missed Oumas Eve. And to miss it because of something as trivial and stupid as traffic, it was murdering her as she sat at the wheel with the entourage in the back.

Ars turned to those in the back, mainly to Gwen and to Fox, the only two who actually had knives on them. Ren’s were locked up neatly back home, and Arslan’s herself too. Nebula had left her cross blade back in Vacuo, back at Shade until they returned quickly before Vytal picked up again in the New Year.

“Gwen baby, and Fox, go see if you can sort out that roof, Ren, can you scout ahead and see where this traffic trail ends?” She asked the three in the back, which would give her and Nebula the time to map out a solution to getting home before Dew’s parents. It would be the first time they would spend Oumas with them and Nebula wanted more than anything to make only the best impression. She knew, more than anyone, just what kind of people Mrs and Mr Gayl were like and what kind of regards they held Nebula in. This would be the first time they would meet Ars, Reese and May. Nebula knew that they would have to have everything ready and proper before the Gayls arrived.

She slammed her head on the wheel again, wanting so badly to own a working teleporter or for Mr. Violette to be some kind of CEO of a large company with a private helicopter.

Then the lavender eyed leader looked at the lioness at her side, the woman who, if Dew was not, would most certainly be her partner. How she was going to slowly die inside in the three months between the present date and the beginning week of Vytal, where she would be able to see and sleep with the rest of her girls again.

Arslan, the whipped cream haired lioness cuddled Nebula with a surprising smile on her face, it was fairly whimsically, as if melodramatic enough to be performed on stage. “Come on babe, you have to smile, something like this would only happen on Oumas Eve,” she gleamed, so out of character as it was. Nebula was expecting Arslan Altan to smash the piling traffic out of the way, but she was contained and acting like someone out of the musical.

Her index finger and thumb even reached for the nub of the radio, much to Nebula’s dismay as she heard the thudding and grunting in the back of her convertible, the sound of ripping as Gwen lost her patience with the roof.

“Please don’t destroy my car Gwen, like I know it’s snowing but please,” she called back as the faint sound of piano, drums and the voice of Flynt Coal came through the small grill of the stereo radio a little louder. Arslan was teasing her with the dial, threatening to turn it louder and louder. “Ars, please don’t you dare,” Nebula snapped and little as she turned to see the lioness’s smug little grin. She was elated that she was getting to her.

The dial turned ever more to the right, causing the volume to increase again and again, in small little intervals as Flynt’s seductive and festive tone got louder. Arslan could not help but even chuckle under her breath, even as Gwen’s unamused and monotonal demeanor cracked a smile as she heard the tune. Fox joined too, even clicking his fingers, with the impeccable sense of rhythm he had.

Nebula grunted, knowing was what about to happen. She was being a humbug, allowing the woes and worries of the traffic and of Dew and her parents to dampen her holiday cheer and excitement. She had forgotten that it was the holidays, that it was Oumas Eve and they were spending it together, all of them. And Nebula Violette, too busy wondering how they would get home in time, had also forgotten that the song playing through the unwanted grill of her radio, was Dew Gayl’s favourite song. Not only that, but how amazingly ironic it was that it was playing while they were in the predicament they were.

It was even playing back home, in the two-story apartment that was decked to the nines with holly, baubles, two trees - one for the girls and one for the boys - and eggnog and s'mores ready to go. But no one dared touch them save they be filleted alive by Octavia and her kris. She had Sage and Scarlet wait, sitting on their hands until her darlings Gwen, Nebula and Ars return with all they needed for the eve.

Dew on the other hand was tearing almost all of her beautifully done up dirty blonde hair waiting for the three remaining girls to get back. And the fact that the one song that she wanted to smooch them all in a line under the mistletoe to was playing prematurely was not helping one bit. It made her shake and tug at her beehive of hair all the more.

“Fucking touch that eggnog and I swear Scarlet David you will not have fingers!” Octavia shrieked as she pointed her short and flame imprinted daggers right at him with a look of pure devilish intent. There was no doubt in any mind that she would most definitely follow through with her threat should he try to pour a glass. “And that goes double for those mince pies I swear!” Octavia bellowed furthermore.

May Zedong, who was perched atop the railings of the bedroom up above, pulled out her sniper rifle and aimed it right at his beautiful face. “And if that wasn’t enough pretty boy let me know and i can let you breathe through a hole in your head,” she called down, smiling and winking at him with her only good eye. As if that were not enough to dissuade the skallywag to not drink the eggnog, Reese walked in, spiffing suit making them look as decorated as the two trees that they had all piled into the apartment Fox and Yatsu shared with Ren.

“Guys!” Dew popped, her hands turning to balled fists at her sides, tightly slotting together as her face turned a little red. Reese and May both looked to her with cringing glances as it looked as if she was about to explode. “Come on guys this serious!” She thundered, letting the stress get to her. “I have a freaking ham in the stove waiting and I don’t even know now if Nebula, Ars or Gwen are gonna be here to eat it! Not to mention now I have to completely redo my damn hair, and Reese looks really freaking handsome and I can’t go and kiss her under the mistletoe because I planned to kiss all of my girls under it in order of how I met them! And now the freaking music ia playing my favourite song and three of my girls aren’t here! And on top of that, mom and dad are gonna get here before Nebula and she knows how pompous and precise they are. If they get here before she and the rest of the people do I’m gonna die!!”

Needless to say, Sage had dropped his satsuma and Scarlet was so scared he was nearly using his officer’s jacket as a tent to hide in. An angry Dew Gayl was more frightening than an angry Octavia Ember.

“Bro, seriously don’t drink the fucking eggnog next time,” Sage whispered to his redheaded partner and occasional friend with benefits. It was probably not the best thing to whisper however, because when Dew heard the slight sound of it, she shot around to them and her eyes were an inferno. She screamed and practically leaped over the small coffee table between her and the boys, prompting Octavia and Reese to leap into action and grab her before she tore them both to ribbons.

May tossed her sniper rifle to the side and leaped down into the living room while Yatsu, the friendly giant in his chef’s hat and holiday tree apron made his way into the room with a baking tray in hand. Right as the fight was prompted; Sage pulled his sword out from its sheath, as to why he was carrying it around indoors, no one but him knew. Scarlet had his flintlock pulled and was ready, his sabre elsewhere, probably with Sun and Neptune, who were back in Mistral spending the holidays there before Sun would undergo her top surgery. “Love, Dew, I’m sorry ‘bout the nog kay? Leave it out luv!” Scarlet was shouting as he tried to clamber his way back into the downstairs bedrooms from where Reese had come from.

The tall giant with the tray of cookies fully opened his eyes at the calamity and then looked to May who was suddenly standing next to him. “Should I toss the cookies away?” He asked her with his gentle and soothing voice, the one he rarely ever used outside, only inside. It was barely louder than a muted whisper, even Fox - the man who some people thought was mute like Neo - spoke louder than Yatsu.

May smiled at him, wanting to pet his soft hair but realising she was in no way tall enough even if she leaped. A step ladder would not even close their gap it must have been about four more foot before she was the same height as him. So instead, she grabbed a cookie from the tray, milk and white chocolate chipped with red and green frosting and the dough in the perfect shape of a tree.

“Nah buddy, don’t you dare throw these away,” May Zedong smiled, her one eye winking again as she scoffed half of the cookie into her mouth and grinned all the more from the beautiful sweetness. “It would be a crime to toss these babies away Yatsu. Don’t worry about Dew, she’s just freaking out because her Mom and Dad are some bigshot business owners in Vacuo--”

“--Daddy’s the Vacuoan equivalent of Nicholas fucking Schnee!” Dew shot at May, somehow hearing what the sniper babe of Team BRNZ had actually said.

May smiled and shook her head, eating another scrumptious cookie off of Yatsu’s tray. “Oh yeah? Then why hasn’t he offered to pick up the gang stuck in traffic in his fancy helicopter?” She shot back, smiling at the banter as her two other girlfriends were still trying to prevent the now ravenous Dew from ripping the two boys in four. May knew why Dew hadn’t called her father to pick up the girls and boys from downtown. It was her pride. She wanted it all be okay, she wanted them to be home for them all to act as if nothing had happened before the Gayls showed up. But that was looking less likely than Scarlet getting his eggnog.

But then May looked out of the window, her eye mellowing as she turned from scoffing down a third lovely cookie, to simply gnawing on it with the sounds of Dew trying to murder Sage and Scarlet fading. The beanied beauty looked out the cityscape of Downtown Vale, huffing just a little, hearing a slight ring of the music on the radio, which had turned from Dew’s favourite song into another one. Something barely any of them liked, but knew all too well.

“Do they know it’s Oumas time at all?~” The radio asked, leaving a slightly sour taste in May’s mouth from the cookie mixed with the reasons the song was composed.

She continued to look out into the snow, a real storm coming in. If Nebula and her group were still even coming, they had best make it fast, or May thought they’d truly be stuck out there. “Come on Neb, get home for Oumas.”

The frustrated yet still beautiful leader of Team NDGO was trying her best, and then some more as Ars and Ren and Fox tried their best to fuel her with more enthusiasm. But even that was not enough no matter how much and how hard she slammed the palm of her gloved hand into the steering wheel of her lush lilac convertible. The roof was up now, with a massive gash in the fabric near her head where Gwen had slashed at it, so now snow was only falling into Nebula’s lap instead of on top of everyone.

But it was really starting to pile up now, a full on blizzard looking to come in, and still, they had only covered about a mile since before. It was infuriating.

As Lie Ren had scouted, using the tops of a row of fast food stores that the cause of the massive lane of traffic was now down to delivery truck of timber that had somehow skidded on the road. Authorities and helpers were working to move the massive tree trunks from the middle of the road while looking for a suitable diversion route through downtown, which was gridlocked. So they were stuck, well and truly, and while the traffic was moving slower than Jaune Arc’s training, they were still lazily moving. But at their current pace it was looking to be hours, about five even before they made it to a suitable road to get home. And then it would be Oumas Day, and Dew would most probably have dissolved into a puddle of tears. But that was not going to happen, Nebula would not let her partner and girlfriend be alone as the clock struck midnight with her rich parents breathing down her neck.

“We’re not gonna be freaking late!” She thundered into the inside of the convertible after a check of her watch. Finally, a plan had struck her in the head as if she were a holiday Robin being struck with a stone, however, she stroked the wheel of a convertible with teary eyes, with all passengers looking at her curiously.

Swiftly, Nebula pulled over and parked, wrapping her scarf around her. “Come on,” she told them.

“Neb? What are you doing?” Arslan asked as the guitar of yet another holiday song began to drizzle out of the radio speakers in the doors. As the lioness looked to the team leader of the siren batch, she gently figured out what the idea was, and was amazed that not only Nebula had it, but also went through with it.

But Nebula Violette was now filled with zeal and determination to make it home in time, she would not allow her girlfriends to be alone against the Gayls. They would make the best impression, they would make the parents love them all and they would combine have the best Oumas they had collectively ever had. With a chatter in her teeth, rubbing her hands together Nebula pulled open the back door and lifted the trunk after.

She called back to Ren and to Fox. “Help me with these boys,” the leader instructed, passing them bags and rolled up posters, all the gifts and assorted treats they had spent the day collecting. “Gwen Darcy get you and your dick out here now and grab the tree, gods know you’re the strongest,” Nebula instructed her intersex team member, who huffed and pouted in response as they got out of the car.

“Next time leave my dick outta this Neb, you’re the one who strokes it,” Gwen grumbled under their breath as they grabbed the smaller tree roughy and hoisted it out of the trunk. That left four bags left, two for Neb herself and then two more for Arslan who was just now getting out and picking up her boom box.

All four of her partners have her a stiff look as if to insinuate she was mad. And if she was about to do what Gwen and Nebula thought she was, she was indeed insane enough, or just high from the humble holiday spirit.

“Oh you are not Ars,” Ren told her, spotting the grinning look on her face as she inserted the tape into the deck and waited for the bass spots to kick in.

Nebula shot her a smile too and leaned in for a quick kiss as the snow droplets came down a little harder, with the deathly grip of the cold wrapping around the group. Gwen made note that it would only be a swift hour until the Gayls would definitely be at the apartment, which would not give them a lot of time at all. And she was right. They also needed to make sure the dinner was done, the table was set, all the girls were kissed and loved, and then that Ars was in her suit like Reese, while Neb was slapped into her tight and purple sequined dress, with Gwen following in her frock that Octavia had bought for her. It was going to require only the most desperate of speed, and in the cold they were about to face, that would not be easy.

But still, Arslan Altan, the beautiful lioness herself who took fun out of anything she could in such a passive and covert way, would still hold two bags in one hand so she could hold her boom box over her shoulder, to play holiday songs. They were rallied now, despite how crippled Ren looked as the Oumas themed music began to sprout from the boom box. Still he was ready and willing to do anything, leap across the roofs of buildings to get home in time, and Gwen was about ready to go full on hulking mass and activate her semblance just to ram her way through the traffic.

“Come on people! We are not going to be late for Oumas! Hit it Ars!” Nebula roared as she hit the button on her keys to lock the convertible, which was going to get seized before she would be able to come back because she was illegally parked. She gave not a single damn, they needed to be home and they needed to be there faster than anything. And Arslan just so happened to have the most perfect song to drive them faster and faster there.

It was not a holiday song, rather, the oldest song Arslan had on her mixtape. The lioness was so retro the boo box played tapes, the sort of vintage antique thing that someone like James Ironwood would own. But the Altans were very much like that, Arslan’s mothers living a very old life, despite still being in their late thirties themselves. Susan and Silver Atlan, a pair of the proudest lesbians in Mistral, and that was saying something what with the likes of Sharp and Piper Chomos.

But still, Ars hit the button to initiate their gauntlet sprint through the piling snow through the milage to the apartment front door. “A-Here we are, here we are, here to go… Here we go. Rockin’ all over the world!” The boombox sprouted, setting the small team into a mad frenzy, running passed the never ended trail of traffic. Gwen was panting within minutes and Nebula was feeling the biting chill of the frosty wind nip at her arm interior, already seeping through her and settling into her bones. She secretly hoped, as they all did, that the beef was ready and waiting for them, with dresses and suits pressed and on beds too, hoping that all it would take would be mere minutes, a little more for Nebula and Gwen to fix their hairs, even for the latter to shower and pick the correct underwear to what they were feeling - they alternated.

It was hardly long enough before Nebula could not stand the lack of cheer as they passed into and through the heart of downtown, the songs blasting from the tape deck inspiring her. She stood straight as she walked and waited for the breakdown again and with one proud voice she sang, Ars soon joining her.

“And I like it, I like it, I like it, I la-la-la-like it. La-la-la-like it. Rockin’ all over the world!” They cheered as the song came to fading end and the next one song began from the mixed tape, Gwen rushing ahead a little, with the tree over their shoulder. All three of them pressed together, with Fox and Ren getting a little closely as friends behind, all singing, even if the boys were a little quieter under their breath. It made the minutes and hour turn from a drag to a mild exercise, Neb just hoped that they were not too late.

It took them a while, but not too much to where their collective legs were about to buckle and break, but long enough for all of them - except of course for Ars - to be in dire need of a sit down. The cold was burning upon all of them however, even through the parka coats and the scarves, the gloves and all. Like a violent bite of the sharpest teeth.

Nebula reached the door first, spotting no stretched sedan, no nothing actually, which she thought strange and then a complete miracle at first, and then just a simple act of chance and desperate dumb luck. “Come on!” She called to the crew running up behind her, fondling her keys from out of her coat pocket as she gripped the doorknob hard. The frozen metal chilled her even more and Nebula bit down on her tongue as she stepped in. The rest of the group filed in faster and faster, then up and up the stairs; of course the elevator was out and busted as always the way Ren cursed as he climbed behind her. Not a good sign as Nebula climbed and thought to herself.

The Gayls could have easily have taken a cab or any number of other methods including but not limited to parachuting/hang gliding into the apartment via the roof access way. And that scared Nebula even more than the fact that she was already late on Oumas Eve.

Walking in on Dew and her father eating supper was a horrible prospect, all the worse as she gripped another door handle; the one to Ren’s apartment. Under her breath, Nebula prayed to Chronos that they were all on time and punctual as always, and she never prayed, this was the first in years.

Dew heard the rumble of the doorknob and instantly gasped, with May returning from the bedroom in her shirt, bowtie, trouser pants and suspenders - no jacket, however - just in the nick of time to see Nebula come through the door with bags in hand.

“Neb!” Dew wailed as she saw the flash of berry purple come through the door, lurching forward and sprinting across the room to her girlfriend and partner.

“Typical,” Gwen and Ars both said in unison as they huffed, with Reese and May both in their more masculine orientated attire coming at the lioness and Octavia coming for her intersex partner Gwen. They all hugged in two separate clusters, with Ars and the swords person Gwen holding hands nevertheless across the gap. “We spend hours trying to trudge through snow to get here and Dew instantly gravitates to biggest tits in the room - Nebula,” Gwen fired off with their unamused glare to the blonde haired lesbian.

The tanned woman with a shining silver matte mane of hair looked down to her own rack, unzipping her parka coat as Reese and May continued to cuddle her around her sides. It seemed to Arslan’s eyes, as the ran visual interference between Dew’s boobs and her own, that she possessed the bigger pair. But then again, Dew always did try to accentuate hers and use them to her own advantage, whereas Ars bound them a little with wraps and instead made sure they were more practical than ornate. And it was hardly as if she was jealous or hated Dew’s breasts, rather the opposite, quite like Nebula and the rest of their party. Thusly, she remained rather quiet, and purred a little as May and Reese cuddled her.

“Um, guys,” Ren made noise from behind them as they all stood in the doorway. “The Gayls are gonna be here really soon. And there’s suits and dresses that need putting on,” he noted and all the girls opened their eyes with a snap. Dew almost screamed as she grabbed Nebula and Gwen’s hands rapidly, tugging them both into the bedroom with all haste and Octavia in tow. They had had extensive experience of stuffing all four of them in one room to get into frocks and ensembles of frilliness and pencil skirtiness. May and Reese took Ars to one of the boys’ rooms and quickly got her stuffed into her more regal and elegant tuxedo, with a tartan bow tie that complemented the others very well. And then came the hair and such.

The radio was off and Fox pulled out his mellow and funky music mix to play through the stereo system Ren had let him thread all over the apartment. The lotus ninja often enjoyed the sweet silence, but he had grown to love the sound of the music over the past year. The sudden funk of the guitar and artificial beat made the sudden rush of movement in both bedrooms slightly more fluid and hazy, as if high or drunk. It was rather sublime with mixed kisses and arms over warm bodies.

Even Sage and Scarlet began to get comfy with each other, nice and cozy on their seats at the bar, the redhead’s hands over the taller tanned man’s shoulders and threading into his beautifully green hair. Sage himself was a little more adventurous, on this occasion of him fully displaying his sexual flexibility. The man considered himself mostly heterosexual, if only when there was an available woman around. Neptune and Sun had teased him many a times that he was gay only when there wasn’t a cunt he could touch. It suited his very gay partner Scarlet all the better. It meant he was able to be pleasured when he and Sage were alone, which was a nice portion of time.

Like now, and how Sage has his fingers slipping into Scarlet’s pants behind the bar, giving the pirate’s rear entrance a succulent rub.

Yatsu readied the food, with ample held from Fox and Ren as soon as they were ready, even supplying small doses of the drinks to the lads at the bar, more eggnog mostly which was very gradually getting them to tipsy, but not fast enough. Not that they were trying, but Dew soon sorted them out, revoking nog privileges as soon as she returned from dolling up her beautiful Nebula in her slip lined and alluring lavender dress that made her look like the blonde lesbian had bought her as a true doll from Atlas not Vacuo. Gwen looked equally as pretty although in a different way, in a lighter dress of crimson cinnamon with an almost floating skirt that sprawled outward. It was beautiful and with a cute bow at the back that Octavia was teasing her partner with.

Arslan looked fierce and professional in her tux as if she was a businesswoman or a crime boss coming out of the boys’ bedroom with her May and Reese on both arms, like dates or henchmen depending on how illegal she was feeling.

The parents arrived not long after, Poppy and Lilas Gayl looking very pompous and everything they all expected, and Nebula almost feared as they looked at her in her dress. Of course Poppy herself complimented how the leader of Team NDGO looked in her number, with Lilas reinforcing that, however Neb doubted the validity and the sincerity of their comments and simply continued to laugh and engage in the small talk. It was more than awkward with Ars, Reese and May all in special, more boyish suits to match how they acted. Poppy hardly commented on them and sipped the Prosecco that had been popped for her, Lilas taking to a flagon of eggnog with Sage and Scarlet. The latter tried his best to hide the sheer campiness of himself and did great from what Dew could tell. He stood away from Sage, placing the CEO between him and his partner. A smart move as Dew whispered to him once she joined them.

Dinner was as smooth as it was equally bumpy, the table not able to seat all of then, causing Yatsu and Fox to take their beef and other food into the chilled recreational space Ren had converted from the study. It had to be done yet the other boys felt an air of embarrassment that they had not remedied that problem before the Gayls arrived. Yet the conversation was stipulating, all of them learning much about the mysterious, non-moustached CEO of Remnant. One that had, as they learned, had plenty of experience dealing with Jacques - Now Sturm - Schnee.

Lilas was a businessman, and had been from a very young age, however not marrying into a fortune, and not being born into one. He had struck it big, not with Dust like the Schnees. Not with Energy like the other shrouded CEO of Watts Industries. No Lilas Gayl had built his small business from the ground up on clothing, and more importantly, armour of hunters, huntsmen and huntresses, which of course had let him come into a small fortune. The secret, as he found, was piling research into allowing the clothes to channel semblances and work with the wearer to make combat easier and yield better results, limiting chance for injury and fatality. Of course there had been other manufacturers in the kingdoms that did this; independant blacksmiths and leather weavers that used specialised equipment but they were a diamond dozen and chose to retreat to backwater towns and out of the way villages. Lilas Gayl was one of the first proper businessmen that made the service affordable, effective enough, and as widespread as it was. At the moment, Gayl Clothing Incorporated shipped to all the kingdoms but Atlas, under trade embargo at the hands of Sturm himself, and supplied the uniforms for all academies except Atlas and Haven.

In fact, most of the wardrobes in the house they were in were made of clothing and armaments designed and made by the GCI. And Lilas smiled when he told them, Dew reflecting that when they all realized just how much growth and reach Lilas, and therefore his daughter had in the world. A private airship or helicopter was small talk to what they were talking about.

Lilas could cripple Vale, Mistral and even small parts of Menagerie if he so desired. Combined with the Vacuoan Military which was on the rise after the small Vytal Crisis of last year, Lilas was looking to be one of the most influential men of the southern hemisphere of Remnant.

“Now talk to me about Sturm fucking Schnee my cherubs,” he boasted, finishing the rest of his beef and leaning back with another sip of his eggnog. Dew had to laugh, and also feel fairly important, as much as Weiss Schnee must have. While the white haired member of Team RWBY was the most iconic daughter in Remnant by far, Dew was not far behind her, and Dew was considered a more favourable heiress of course. Soon she could tell there would come a time where her father Lilas, and Sturm sChnee, would meet again, and Dew and Weiss would come head to head in public opinion arena.

That was if Weiss was even the heiress to the SDC anymore.

It took a few hours, but the dinner was passed and all had calmed down, Lilas enjoying a glass of cinnamon whiskey with Dew and Arslan as the rest of the women enjoyed a glass of creamer, Yatsu, Fox and Ren retiring to their room to sleep early as Sage and Scarlet took to the roof to watch the stars and the snow. And not long after that did the Gayls finally leave, after leaving their presents for the morning for all. The hug between Lilas and Dew looked as if it would never end as they stood in the doorway, Nebula swooning over the family love that she was missing from her mother back in Vacuo. She would see her soon at least.

“Merry Oumas Stardust,” Constellation Violette used to say to her daughter, in the silkiest of voices as she tucked Nebula into bed on that night where it never snowed. Vacuo was too hot and too arid for the snow to ever fall until one night. The night Nebula had told herself she’d become a huntress and make a better life for her mom. The one her runaway father could never make

Still, she snapped out of it and looked back at Lilas and Dew cuddling goodbye.

“I’ll see you in the new year, my love,” Lilas had told his daughter before kissing her again. Dew bid him happy holidays and then he and Poppy were gone again, and the girls were alone to finally take a breath and enjoy themselves. How so? By watching the newly released Sci-fi movie that followed the Dust Wars Saga, and only at the end, upon seeing the Princess of the original movies, did any of them cry.

But not for too long, for there was too much still left to enjoy. Oumas, the presents, the tie together, the New Year Celebration, and then, only after all that, and three months apart like all the others, would they be back again. For Vytal Tournament.

Ren would be competing with Jaune again for the first time in a long while, against his baby sister Nora and against his old friend Pyrrha, Team CFVY would be together, as much as Yatsu could not wait for that, and NDGO would be alone, Ars and Reese back with Team ABRN and May with Team BRNZ once again. And they were all determined for one of them to bring back home the trophy. But all Lie Ren could think about were the growing storm clouds on the horizon of time, and how he could feel that one way or another, no matter what the ladder said for the opening round and no matter how far anyone wanted or could get… Jaune Arc and Pyrrha Nikos would settle their dispute inside that arena.

And only one of them would leave the Vytal Tournament alive…


	24. All Along The Watchtower

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Volume 2. The girls have been together and preparing for the Vytal Tournament since December, and now, approaching the middle of March, the time has finally come for the world to descend upon Vale for the festival itself. With everyone there, all parties have different plans and schemes and motives to see them succeed. Sturm Schnee, allied with Salem and her horsemen wishes to see them dead and his daughters come back to Atlas, while Jaune, Cinder and Amber have vowed to see the witch dead before the end, and all the while the girls have no idea what is truly going on around the Tournament. 
> 
> But as Taiyang leads Raven and Qrow to the Tournament to protect the girls and strike back against Schnee for trying to murder Raven, they find out Ozpin has mysteriously vanished right before the inauguration of the festival, and instead Professor Penelope Peach heads the school temporarily. 
> 
> What other shadows cast over Vytal and Vale itself? Where is Ozpin at this hour of most desperate need? And what will Salem do to destroy all that he had set against her?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I named the Chapter 'All Along the Watchtower' I am not referring to the Bob Dylan version of the song or the Jimi Hendrix version. Instead, to get a sense of how this Volume will play out, I chose the Bear McCreary Battlestar Galactica Version. Listen to that to see what kind of volume lies in wait for you.

From Apollo Nikos to Headmaster Ozpin of Beacon Academy

Professor, Headmaster. It has come to my attention that my son, aims to compete in his first tournament since he left my custody in Mistral. He is deluded to the fact that he thinks he is in fact a woman, and I would like you to agree to a meeting between myself and my son. The death of dear Auburn left him scarred and I need to begin to make the effort to rehabilitate him back to himself, while his Aunts continue to poison him. Please take my request under consideration dear Ozpin… Or I may have to attend Vytal as a guest from the Noble House of Nikos from Mistral.

From my House to your Desk… Lord Apollo Nikos of Mistral Central.

Fifteen days after the Vytal Tournament

Qrow barged into the Church of the Gods with an aggressive swagger the likes he had never donned before, not ever in all the years he’d had every kind of shit thrown at him. From fighting Grimm in the Emerald Forest on his second day of Beacon, to losing his sister and then his sister-in-law. From being considered a failures huntsman and man from the excessive drinking he went through every single day to being Ozpin’s little errand boy. 

Never had he actually walked along a stretch of pathway so angered and furious before in all his life. But he had only good reason, and that reason was the man in the silver suit at the head of the aisle.

Sturm Schnee, CEO of the SDC, and the person who had to weeks ago destroyed the entirety of Beacon Academy in the final seconds of what would later become to be known as the ‘Vytal Crisis’.

“Do you have any fucking idea what you just did you colossal piece of luxury brand shit?” Qrow Branwen spat across the gap of the altar he had left between himself and Sturm. Disgusted, the bird actually spat onto the floor some feet away from the businessman turned arsonist. And with good reason, the man had actually destroyed the school, all in an effort to accomplish his ghastly goal of manipulating his two daughters. Except it was too late for one, Winter was getting close to her due date, and Weiss would not see the light on his horrid moustache. 

His crimson eyes were almost pouring from his face, like actual blood that was so close to boiling in his skull. Qrow was ready to burst, and Sturm could tell even as he simply smiled and looked to the old crow’s hand as it reached up to hold the hilt of his large slab of metal that was his sword. The businessman only hoped the poor fool would put it would and turn the blade into the scythe had seen the man use. 

But would Qrow really take it out and end the reign of tyranny Sturm Schnee was really bringing down upon him and the girls, and their families. If he didn’t now, there was no doubt in Qrow’s mind that it would only get worse. And they would be burying more bodies than just the one…

Five Weeks Ago

Qrow and Tai watched from the kitchen again for the upteenth afternoon in a row at Raven as she took to the back garden to train again and again, slashing at trees and branches and her own targets made from dust. She certainly was not as good as she was the last time both men had seen her fight, which as many years ago, but she was getting better. She was getting slowly back to her old self, despite the still massive wound in her side, that was slowly healing. However Tai doubted himself, doubted his ability to channel his aura to heal her. 

And Qrow would not, not as many times as Raven had told him, delve into the small amount of clan magic she and he knew to expedite the process. 

That was in all likelihood why she was out in the forest hacking and slashing against the trees from before the sun rose until after it had sunk again. Because she was angry once again at her own ability and even worse so annoyed that Qrow, her own twin brother would not help her case and heal her faster than her ex-husband was doing. 

It was proving most difficult, being amongst normal people once again. Almost living in the same house as Taiyang again, all the memories flowing like a rough water in the middle of a seemingly calm storm that was threatening to get rougher. She was not one to stick around when the really harsh waters would hit. Not in recent years at least, not since Summer Rose had died. It was harder than being alone, she put it that way in her head. Harder to remember to interact around her brother, even around Tai, the man whom she was once a wife to. A man whom she’d carried a child for and with. It was absolutely barbaric, and it would be to any human or faunus. But she was Raven Branwen, certainly in high contention for the most mysterious woman in the world award. 

She had caught herself on many occasions around Taiyang forgetting how to breathe clearly, not stealthily. 

It was stupid, it was insane, completely insane, repulsive too. But it was life, it was all her life had become and now she was back forcing it upon the blonde man who only wanted to raise the kids in peace. She was dragging him into a war that he didn’t even know was happening. And Sturm Schnee was just the tip of her iceberg. If Tai found out about Salem, and what history Raven had with her… She might also end up on his list. 

Raven slashed her katana deep into the wood of a mighty oak with a grunt loud enough to be heard from the village nearby. The one she had always shopped at. She wondered a while if the bar was still there, the Inn. Perhaps she should have gone there instead of here. The house, her home.

Only it wasn’t her home, she had ironed out that freakish fact in her mind a thousand times even before staggering to the front door with the barrage of wood in her chest. Not since she left on that mission when Yang was three years old and never come back had this been her home, and certainly not since the final time she saw Summer. 

That day flared to the forefront of her memory, the woman’s white cloak. Her silver eyes, glowing defiantly in the main hall of that infernal opera house. In a land the shape of a Dragon. Where Grimm were born…

“Stop it bitch!” Raven cussed at herself.

“Stop what? I brought you coffee you crazy broad.” The voice of Qrow came from behind her, a flash of coffee in his hand and two mugs in another. His hip flask was nowhere to be seen and it made his sister suddenly aloof. 

“Strange, aren’t you a little late drinking?” She asked, leaving her blunting red blade wedged in the tree for a moment as she turned to address him, red eyes glowing in the rising spring sun as it cast itself overhead. The seasons were melded and the showers of the start of spring heralded a change in weather and climate. Typical. She hated the spring, almost as much as she hated the summer. It didn’t give her the mobility of night and the drenching weather of downpour or snow she enjoyed more than baking sun spells. Summer had always teased her in the warmer seasons, trying to coax her out of her brooding and moody demeanor outside, to the beach or the cafe. She’d always tried to get Raven to wear different clothes aside from her sweaters and raggedy clothes of red and black. Sometimes it worked, others it didn’t. At least in the winter she was always more comparable. 

Qrow gave his sister a snort of sorts as he set down the cups and lifted the lid from the flask of coffee, pouring her and himself a cup. “Too early for me, and I think if we’re gonna infiltrate Vytal, I should have my wits about me. What about you?” He asked, shooting her a glance in reflective red eyes that she knew all too well. Mainly because she’d always been giving it him. 

At first she was surprised, both from the glance and from the fact that he was suddenly off the drink. At one point in their lives Summer had even wanted to give the old bird an intervention on his drinking about the time he suddenly left a helpless barmaid in the woods with Grimm lurking because he staggered away wasted. Now suddenly they were fighting forces she was not telling them about and he was becoming sober? 

The world really was changing. 

Not just with the Branwens, or with the Roses, or the Xiao Longs, but the whole scale of it. It was as if the girls themselves were bringing forth a swift usher of alteration in the world. And Raven could feel it in the air, in the climate and in her skin. She only hoped that the change was for the better, for if it were for the worse, they might not have the stature to handle such violent gusts that always seemed to follow such new weather. 

“Coffee?” Qrow asked her, the sly glare changing to a casual look of sibling understanding. He knew she was holding back, and with Tai away in the kitchen, no doubt calling the girls, he could finally ask his dear twin sister about it. 

Handing her the cup of coffee and taking his own, Qrow sat on a stump and leaned a little gaily towards her, his eyes mellow and reflective again in the spring morning. “So… Who’s pulling the strings this time?”

Vale…

Winter stood in the kitchen of the townhouse, the only one up to her own recollection, everyone else was still pooped from the small pizza party the night before. It was a special occasion and Winter had risen early and draped her snowflake gown around her slightly expanded tummy. She was now making a stack of pancakes, as well as waffles and eggs and rashers of bacon and every other breakfast food she knew how to. All for the plethora of hungry mouths sleeping away. All except for the birthday girl herself, who was lazily walking down the stairs rubbing her beautiful silver eyes. 

Yes, it was the birthday morning of Ruby Rose. 

“Winter? Whatcha cooking?” Ruby asked, still half asleep and curdling her own mouth from the inherent dryness. She was still drowsy, probably from the overload of the soda she had been downing hours before. 

The icy haired and pregnant beauty spun on the heels of her naked feet and ran to go cuddle her little Rose. “Ruby! Happy birthday darling! Seventeen at last baby!” Winter cried as she zipped across the room and held Ruby so close to her she was nearly making it hard for the birthday girl to breathe. But Winter had become very eccentric like that, her maternal brain taking full hold now that she had developed her four month old baby bump. She looked good however, still amazing and beautiful. So beautiful, as Winter Schnee always was. And the girls were slightly more all over her, more so Yang. Although, Yang had been all over little Ruby over the three or so weeks leading up to her birthday, and Ruby adored it. She adored all attention, but Yang’s always made her slightly warmer and lovelier. It had always been that way, there was just a deeper connection between Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao Long. 

Just as Ruby melted into Winter’s arms, with one hand on her back and the other slipping inside the gown and rubbing the growing life inside her, Winter’s little radio beeped and smooth jazz began to slither out of the speaker grills. It was very old jazz too, spicy and sounding as if it came from a Vacuoan band, the sound of the brass had a distinct tone and waver in it that could only come from that heat. Ruby’s foot began to tap on the floor at the scales and the sliding tones. She liked it and giggled a little, trying to hide her appetite for more jazz with her breakfast. 

“Oh my dust, the music… The pancakes!” Winter screamed, realizing she had to flip them fast and thus zipped back to the hob. She tossed them and then quickly saw to the eggs, escorting them to plates with bacon and beans, then grilled tomatoes and some hash browns. Ruby had never seen a spectacle like it. 

Her mouth was agape with wonder once she saw Winter get her pregnant rear to work, as if she was working in a diner but with the attention to detail that alluded to chef work at a restaurant. Ruby was simply amazed and stunned that Winter had the know how. The Twins and Neo rarely let her near the kitchen for breakfast, since they all prefered to cook the morning rounds themselves. “Winter? How the hell can you cook like that?!” Ruby exclaimed, her eyes like stars over all the movements and breakfast foods shifting about.

It was culinary mayhem. Eggs to plates, bacon flipped, beans on the hob, has browns moved, pancakes flipped, waffles turned, toast replaced, tomatoes flipped, and repeat. It was surgical and yet a warfare of the stove and Ruby was a little enthralled. 

“What this?” Winter looked back rapidly as she flipped more pancakes and omelettes now before more bacon and beans. “Well, Saffron’s father owned a very prestigious restaurant in Atlas when I was a pre-teen. I may have interned there during my time at the Academy before Father ruined me and Saffron,” Winter explained, flipping with more angered enthusiasm and even singing an omelette from pressing too hard. It was fine, not too badly burned underneath. “So I suppose you could say, I have some experience cooking breakfast for a bunch of hungry mouths… Although I’ve never cooked for girlfriends. Plural that is,” Winter blabbered on, as Ruby was more taken aback with the delicious smelling array of breakfast foods were progressively being laid out. 

Ruby’s hands slid over one of Winter’s bare and free arms, her touch whimpering a little at the radiating warmth from the flesh. Winter was so different lately, even after only four more months since the holidays, she was very different than then. She was more radiant, even in her more slobbish of moments when she was craving and stuffing her face. 

She was progressively becoming more and more angelic and Ciel had mused many nights when Pyrrha and Penny played on their consoles and the others amused themselves, that motherhood would be Winter’s halo. Her wings were all the other girls, each making a beautiful, darling feather. 

“Can I eat it Winter?” Ruby asked looking to the plate of hash browns. Her mouth was salivating over the bacon, and gasping for the eggs. 

Winter smiled at her, knowing that even though it was her birthday, they should wait until the rest of the girls were awake. Looking at the clock above the stove, she could tell they would be up any minute, but was mildly amazed that Ciel had not been down already, and Glynda too. It was a Saturday, but Glynda could never stay in bed, except for this morning apparently. Ruby was restless that much Winter could see, she was begging for some taste of the amazing array of food before her. If she was a faunus of some type, her tail would be wagging frantically behind her. 

The white-haired angel ran her fingers through Ruby’s hair. “Okay, try some of my bacon baby, if you like I can make you candy bacon later,” she told the smaller seventeen year old with a wink. Again Ruby was amazed, she had never heard anything of candy bacon. The idea to her had her enthralled. 

“Candy Bacon?” Ruby asked with a gaping mouth. 

Winter leaned down to give her darling rose a beauteous kiss, long and passionate, like the very one she had given her that morning before they left for Mistral months ago. It was fueled by love and passion, as before, perhaps mildly enhanced from the swelling and flowing hormone cocktail that was Winter’s body. Ruby felt it then once the elder woman’s fingers slowly trickled down the smaller girl’s frame to grip at the plump flesh that was her rear. And then Ruby gasped a little in the kiss, to which Winter smiled, her lips curling as she kissed again and pressed a little further into Ruby. 

That was when Yang slowly trailed down the stairs, slowly and looking as the tall and small pair kissed and kissed. When the blonde revealed herself, no words were spoken, only glances exchanged as the smooth and infiltrative bassline of the radio song spilled into the room. It infected all three of them and Winter soon turned off the gas, leaving the last batch of food to cool. 

They would not have long, and Winter knew how fast and slow she could at least be herself. But not Yang. Yang Xiao Long was always unpredictable, and with little Ruby in the equation, with her birthday today too. It was not looking like the blonde and the angel would let her escape some private loving. It was only fair. She was seventeen, and one year away from drinking age, as a sixteen year old she had made it a prolific hobby of hers to fill her sexual portfolio until now it was a fat stack of incidents between herself and the others. 

Where was the harm in adding to it? In kicking off Ruby Rose’s seventeenth year of life with the spark of it. With that which had made them all real? Where was the harm? It was only when those silver and shimmering eyes gave Yang a look, and as Ruby slowly unbuttoned her pajama top, that the blonde knew how old her dear half sister was. She was rapidly becoming woman, and a beautiful one at that. There was only one thing for it.

Sex.

The bass walked a little more intensely, and the words of a seductive Flynt Coal via radio came spilling through, singing words that were not only relevant, but perfect as Winter grabbed her small babe and set her on the counter in the middle of the kitchen. Then Yang approached. The song was Fever, and they were all experiencing it too in that very moment. With Winter kissing Ruby’s front, and Yang her back, both pairs of lips making the birthday girl shiver and squirm with the very fever that Flynt was singing about. Her arm hairs stood on end as she finished removing her top, and as Winter slightly tugged on her bottoms. They had to go as well. All while Yang graced her little half sister’s collar bone with light kisses, then the back of her neck, and then with a mild blow of warm breath.

It sent Ruby rippling back, rolling her eyes and rocking her hips forward slightly as her head knocked back. All the better for Yang to lean over and kiss her from above, lips locking warmly, while Winter managed to get the bottoms free. Then Ruby sat on the enamel of the counter top in nothing but her thin and lacy underwear. A gift from Neo. They were coloured in the ice cream lady’s hair colour - cocoa, strawberry and vanilla. But they too would need to go. 

Yang continued to distract her sister, wetting her shoulders and biceps with more kisses, while the pregnant Winter slid the Neo panties from Ruby until she was completely naked now. And then they joined her. Winter’s gown was lost, and Yang pulled her yellow tank top above her chest to have her beautiful breasts hang out, for Ruby to gawk at.

And then suckle on.

Ruby’s soft lips formed a seal around one of the dragon’s nipples, sucking beautifully as Winter bent down to her knees carefully and began to lick her way up and down the birthday girl’s precious silk. It was already wet, a little soaked from the feverish kisses atop the kitchen counter. Breakfast would follow after but Ruby’s womanhood served as an even more delicious meal for the meantime. Yang leaned her hand over and down, pulling back on the hood to reveal Ruby’s pearl, which Winter soon took into her mouth splendidly, licking at it inside the cave of her mouth. 

It took more than a little amount of concentration for Ruby to remain relatively silent. After all they did not want to wake the girls if they were not already on the way. But the look of pleasured sation on her face was stunning to see from both Winter and Yang’s perspective. The pregnant ex-Specialist could not control her fingers dive into her own panties to give herself a blissful rub. Her sucking and lapping up at Ruby’s released wetness did not stop, nor did Yang cradling her little sister and rubbing her little clit, running her free fingers through the red and black hair. 

“You like that birthday girl? Yeah ya do Rubes. It’s all for you,” Yang told her, rubbing her hair again as Winter serviced her womanhood lavishly below. “And there’s so much more if you want it Rubles. It’s ya birthday after all.”

“Yang is right my darling. It’s your birthday and it’s the first we can all celebrate with you like this. Anything you want, is our command. We all agreed,” Winter seduced too, taking a swift reprieve to get her breath back before recommencing her lavish licks and sucking on Ruby’s soaked and blushing silk. She was silently whimpering a little, becoming overwhelmed by all the dirty and implied talk. She had never expected to wake up to this on her birthday, but could hardly refuse any of it. It was so intense with the background music.

As soon as little Ruby let her mind wander, while still sucking on Yang’s nipple, holding both her breasts, she lost all control. And she came all inside Winter’s mouth.

“What a lovely way to burn, what a lovely way to burn… What a lovely way to burn…” Flynt finished, as the three girls on the counter did in the same time. 

Finally, breakfast could begin, after they cleaned up, hearing a stir upstairs. 

Elsewhere in Remnant…

The wind blasted past Jaune’s perfect and loose blonde hair in the front, along with doing the same to Merc’s, as he stood up on the passenger side, with the blonde driving across the bridge at insane speeds. The convertible was roaring across the massive suspension bridge that linked islands off of the coast of Mistral. Jaune and Merc were visiting the Arc Family, and Jaune had passed his test in the last four months. As an advance on his birthday, and as a reward for finally fighting like a real Huntsman, Marigold and her husband Platinum Arc had gifted their only son a flashy new car. And he was currently trailblazing across the Mistral Golden Guardian Bridge with Merc, clad in a new dress and with stockings flashing, standing up nearly to feel the wind. 

“Why didn’t you pass your test sooner!” Merc cried before a large cheer as he flailed about, Jaune smiling next to him. It was a very brief vacation, and they were almost wrapping up on the visit. Jaune’s family were the only ones it seemed that were not attending Vytal. All of the other families were, as rumor had it - Xiao Long, Scarlatina, Adel, Bailey, and all other families of people Jaune knew were coming. But not his family, which he saw coming. 

They never attended anything. But that didn’t bother him. 

Mercury had no family, he’d killed his own father in a vicious fight for his life after the man had taken his own son’s legs. Amber had never spoken of anything related to family, not even to Cinder. Roman had spoken of a sister and a brother before, but never discussed it further. And Cinder did the same as Amber. Not even Merc or Roman knew if she had siblings, and parents absolutely had never come from her lips. She was a relative anomaly. 

“Because I was so busy busting my ass to get good at fighting for Vytal babe!” Jaune shouted back, not even thinking of the family that never seemed to care. The only ones that had, were the ones who had once upon a time made him realise he was bisexual, and the gaggle that had made him partial to bending his masculinity as Mercury did, only not as often. 

His sisters. His gaggle of sisters who always dressed him in women’s clothes and did his make up, making Jaune look and feel pretty, exactly as Merc did. It wasn’t until he saw his Mercury in Cinder’s old dress that first time that Jaune had picked up the habit and lifestyle again. And now he was doing it more and more, and feeling like a million lien. 

Mercury sat down again, running his hands through his silver hair to wash it back. He straightened his dress and fixed his stuffed bra, making his breasts look and feel correct. Mercury Black was venturing more and more into looking exactly as he would if he had a vagina and wider hips. Jaune and Amber both had been complimenting him a lot on the rack, although only Mr Arc would see Mr Black unclothed and in his stockings. 

“You gotta relax about Vytal babe, you’re gonna win the fucker,” Mercury told his boyfriend, leaning over to kiss his cheek.

“I wouldn’t go that far, I mean I still have a lot to learn, I’ll be happy if we make it to the doubles rounds, me and you,” Jaune retorted, relaxing in the leather seat a little and slowing down as they came off of the bridge and into the long roads leading back to Vale. 

While cars and roads and airships and the like were rarely seen outside of the cities of Remnant, even as the times pressed forwards and the Renaissance accelerated into a second age, there were more and more being built. And the roads were so deserted they were safe from Grimm, and usually elevated to a mid level to avoid the small Beowulfs below, and the Nevermores above. The long highway that seemed to connect Mistral to Vale, or was trying to, was one such road, and was still under construction. Many other roads existed for Merc and Jaune to drive back. It was yet another sign to show how fast the world was changing.

In fact, Jaune had to think about that. The change, that he was sensing more and more had started with Cinder being foiled two years ago before that Vytal. She had been stopped, and thus the world had been seemingly saved, at least for the moment. And because of that, a lot of progress had been made.

Politics had washed away a lot of red tape, and corruption had seemed to make an exit. All in the name of modern progress, safety, and forward development. Remnant had altered, had been altered. It had advanced.

Hence, the New Renaissance, and Jaune felt some sudden pride that he was one of those cogs that had made it happen.

But at the same time, he felt a slight curdle of dread that he was needed again, to ensure that this Salem would not simply bypass all that progress, and kill the world herself. That’s why he had been training, improving, with all his might. That was why he had hardened his relationships, and properly become Merc’s new partner, and vice versa. The silver-haired male was a very welcome replacement to Pyrrha Nikos, at least to Jaune. The more he thought of Vytal the more he thought of an inevitable showdown between himself and his former partner if he could really get that far. The thought made him shudder as well as tighten his grip. 

He actively anticipated, and hated that showdown. He did not currently know if he could beat her, or if he would. Only time could tell that. And there was not much of it. Vytal was only days away. 

“Is Ren still a go to join us? And Ambrosia?” Merc asked, relaxing himself as well, texting Cinder most probably as he pulled out a piece of candy. A Rainbow Strip. 

Jaune checked the speedometer and then how much gas he had in the tank, there was more than enough and he loosened his tightened grip on the steering wheel, pushing Pyrrha away once again. That was nothing unusual he had done it since the moment he had met her. Pushing Pyrrha Nikos away was like breathing to Jaune Arc. 

“Yeah they’re both good. Team JAMR is good and ready to go, although Ambrosia is new and Ren has never fought with her before,” Jaune reported, remembering the meeting he and Ren had to go through with Professors Oobleck and Port about registering. Ambrosia Salad, a new and exchanged student to Beacon, a sheep faunus with pistol weapons like Ren was a wild card, and they had only managed to rope her in with Jaune’s good word and charming charisma. Ren had to be a partner for her, and he had never fought with her.

Yet more scars of the splitting of JNPR had been taken by Ren, just like before and Jaune was amazed that he was still talking to him. That being said, Ren didn’t talk much at all anymore, not since the battlelines had been drawn between Pyrrha and Nora, against Jaune. Ren would have no part in it, and that had left him out in the wild with no rope. 

To Jaune, he felt sad for Ren, that the girls would leave him how he was. But the blonde felt no guilt in his part of the JNPR civil war. 

“They’ll be fine babe, and so will you… Vytal Finals here we come!”

In another place…

Ironwood almost dove into his main office aboard the grand dreadnaught sailing from Atlas to Beacon, his uniform almost ripped off. It had been a hard battle, of Grimm swarming the corridors of his ship, ravaging most of his personnel before something else, someone else had begun hacking them to pieces.

He could hear the screams coming from the corridors and bulkheads away. But he had one job, one more thing to do before he would allow the figure with the glowing purple sword and scythe to slash him to pieces. 

James had to warn Ozpin. No. Oz had seemingly dropped off of the planet for weeks as of late, in fact James didn’t know if he was at Beacon or in the wind. Qrow.

He tried the vidcom, to Qrow, wherever he was he would always have his scroll on him, untap and encrypted, perfect. Qrow’s scroll was a foolproof and uncrackable, untraceable device. If he got to Qrow, the information would be safe and he could find Oz, he always managed to. Or Tai, Taiyang Xiao Long, he would be a perfect ally. Hell so would Raven Branwen should she be found and found alive. Even James had heard about the events at the second Schnee Manor months ago and whose body had seemingly been there. But Raven was not a woman to be underestimated, James Ironwood knew that a lot better than many people in the world.

After all, he had almost caught her ten years ago, a few years after she disappeared. But he had never told anyone about that.

The armed men and women that were James’s security detail stacked up at the door to his office, with the General inside, they had to guard the door from the assailant, even after seeing what she had done to the others. And meanwhile James tried Qrow. No answer, he was too busy in the garden of the log cabin talking with Raven. He tried Oz after all, and nothing once again, Oz was in the wind. 

Glynda. Nothing, she was busy with the girls currently toasting Ruby’s seventeenth over a massive breakfast. He tried Tai. And the blonde dragon slayer was outside with more tea for his ex-wife and brother in law. Winter. Nothing again, the same as Glynda.

James Ironwood suddenly realised where were not a lot of people left. In fact there was one. Sturm Schnee…

“Hello? Sturm Schnee, James?” Sturm answered from his branch office of the SDC in the middle of Vale, in work bright and early as hell was breaking loose aboard James’s airship. 

The hallway’s emergency lights all flickered out one by one row, until the entire corridor was reduced to nothing but blackness, and with the guards breathing heavily. They had seen the rest of the detachment from the Military Academy at Atlas reduced to half bodies and shells. Carcasses like peanuts before the humanoid assailant. What the horde of Grimm had done was a lot cleaner and did not look as painful has her wroth. No she was going to kill them, they all knew that, but they had to defend James Ironwood to make that call, even if it was to Sturm Schnee he knew who was attacking them. Their lives were in his mechanical and organic hands, and that was just too much.

In the darkness they heard all other noise silence, and then the opening of the bulkhead door rang out, along with footsteps. They were not loud but still audible, as well as the slight clanking of crystallized jewelry and the slight swoosh of a cape or dress. All of them clutched their guns, their laser rifles close and did not dare to blink from the consuming darkness. They did not want to let their guard down from her. 

And then she revealed herself. 

Salem, Witch of the Grimm conjured an ethereal scythe out of thin air, wispy and purple like an outline of lilac plasma, and she stood there for a solid second, waiting with no visible look on her face. She just stood before them, wanting them to shoot her down first. 

“Open fire!” One guard, a female yelled and all at once, the small platoon of about seven of them laid into where Salem was. 

And the woman did not flinch. She didn’t have to. 

She waved the scythe around in a circular motion, flailing and twirling it around her front section, deflecting every and all laser bolts coming at her into the surrounding walls and behind her. It was as if time for her had slowed and she passed through the hurl of laserfire with an elegant ease that made it look like ballet. Eventually her deflection skills paid off and a laser ricocheted right back into the chest of a guard, killing him on impact. And then they stood up, for Salem to seemingly and systematically murder the entire squad. 

With a twirl of her purple and ethereal scythe, with a blade on the other end, Salem deflected the flurry of lasers again. Then with a grip at the thin air between her and the closest guard, she grabbed him, with seemingly telekinesis, and slammed him up into the ceiling. Protecting herself from more lasers, moving under her prey, she slashed across his body, cutting him in half.

Before it had even began it seemed, there were three left, and she soon dismantled them. Taking their weapons away with another outreach of force they were defenseless, and then it was sport, it was play. 

Salem gripped at her scythe and brought it around, cutting the head of the middle guard, the woman who had called the fire on the Witch, clean off. The cranium bounced a little as the left guard clawed at the door with his fingernails, trying to get away from the slaughter. But there was no way out. He was dead, just like the other and the already departed, he just could not accept it yet. But Salem showed him a small mercy, by leaving him for last. Instead she grabbed the remaining man with a grip on the air and slammed him into the wall, soon stabbing into him afterward as the last man clawed at the metal door in an unrelenting and supernatural fear. A fear unlike anything before. Then finally did she put him out of his misery.

“Help us! General Iron--” He could not even finish his sentence before Salem walked to him and plunged the bladed end of her weapon through his chest and the door, seemingly opening it. 

“It’s Salem!” James cried into the phone. “Tell Oz, it’s Salem she’s back! Tell him!”

“Open sesame I suppose eh James?” Salem cut him off, crushing the bulk of the phone with a snap of her wrist. It all crumbled in his hands and on the desk, and then the desk too, into splinters and chunks before him as he stood up. He was finished, all that was left was for Salem to kill him too, but she wouldn’t. Not just yet. 

“What do you want Salem?”

She looked at her wrist, at a small scratch on it, old, healed plenty of years ago from some skirmish no doubt like this one, hence the jog in memory and compulsion to check it. “Why there’s been a change in plans James… All in due time old friend. But for now there’s some things we need to discuss. It shan’t take long,” she told him menacingly, walking deeper into his office as he sat down again, Salem closing the door behind her with her power again. 

One could be entirely certain of one thing and one thing alone. She enjoyed getting her hands dirty again, very much so. It was going to be an interesting year at that.


	25. Paradise City

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Vytal Tournament begins and Team RWBY is first to bat against Team ABRN, only Yang sees someone she was least expecting, and Pyrrha the same...

From Professor and Acting Headmistress of Beacon Academy, Penelope Peach to Apollo Nikos of Mistral.

Sirah, as Professor Ozpin is disposed as of late, pending an investigation into his slight indisposition I have thus been enacted to lead the Academy in his stead and have also been forwarded all of his personal correspondence regarding students and their wellbeing. 

My name is Professor Penelope Peach, previously of Semblance Studies. 

However, I have since received and read your message to Professor Ozpin regarding the topic of your daughter Pyrrha Nikos and must inform you and should you intend on making do with your threat of attending Vytal, I have been instructed to all to stop you. General Ironwood is in the same boat, as are Professor Goodwitch and Tutor Winter Schnee. As also are Professors Oobleck - my husband - and Port. You are not to attend Vytal unless exactly told differently by Coordinator Jacques Schnee. And until I receive word of that, you are to be barred from entering the school grounds or the entrance to the arena. 

If it were up to me I would not even let you inside the Vale city limits. You’re a monster for how you treated and continue to treat your daughter Pyrrha. I will be informing Mrs and Mrs Choma of this correspondence and I hardly believe they will be as polite or accommodating to yourself Mr Nikos. 

Stay away from the school and from Pyrrha, Mr Nikos, she had expressed with extreme clarity that she wishes to never see or hear from you ever again, and as a teaching faculty, we will safeguard her body and wishes. 

Good Day, Penelope Peach.

“Do you think she’d come watch us? Compete in the Vytal Tournament I mean,” Ruby Rose asked in between bites of her apple sandwiches that Pyrrha had made for her. Nora laughed a little as she passed the birthday girl her soda from the hamper and took a bite of her own bagel. The weather was gorgeous and they were lucky to have all have made it to Patch with good traffic. 

It was never easy having trips with all seventeen of them, and they often required a cavalcade of cars hired or a very long and expensive limo. Not many of them could drive themselves. There were Winter and Glynda, obviously, as well as Ciel and Neon. Nora was currently studying to take her test as well as Coco. Velvet knew a little about cars, from her mother. Laurel Scarlatina worked with cars when she wasn’t raising Velvet on her own. She was coming to Vytal, her and her uncle, Peter Scarlatina, who was also a rabbit faunus, and an old one at that. Laurel had married into the name, and then Velvet’s father had died one day, in a protest around Vale for better jobs for faunus workers. Although he was never a member of the White Fang, even then he could not live with himself. 

Learning that about Velvet’s family had made Blake a little ashamed of herself one day, to think that Velvet's father had died and never joined, and yet Blake ran and lived again and again even from the White Fang. 

“Who darling? Your mother?” Winter asked, currently holding Weiss against her large tummy, with the little unknown life inside. The smaller heiress as sleepy, she had been up since four planning the surprise party they had thrown for Ruby and was in fact sleeping from eight to when Ruby got up. She had secretly heard the antics on the kitchen counter but had stayed in bed, holding Pyrrha and Neo close to her. Weiss was finding herself getting really sleepy as of late, often dozing off in the most peculiar of times and places. Winter took care of her. 

“Oh Summer? She would definitely come to see you and Yang, Ruby. She would not miss it for the world I’m positive,” Pyrrha added, gently eating a slice of her key lime pie. She leant over the picnic blanket and gave the melancholy Ruby a small kiss. Then Neon came from behind and hugged the birthday girl in an assaulting cuddle. 

She kissed Ruby too, adding to the one Pyrrha had planted. “You bet your mom would come see you! I bet she’d cheer you on to the final, and then be in the crowd shouting the loudest for ya to kick whoever it is’s butt! Like she’d be all ‘Get ‘em, Rube! That’s my girl! I gave birth to that bitch with the scythe! Come on Ruuuuuuube!!’” Neon cried out, over exaggerated as always, just like her snowperson months ago at breakfast. It made Ruby giggle though as the rainbow coloured kitten tossed and flailed herself about a little, impersonating the dead mother. 

Yang was completely silent, and not eating, and not drinking. And not really doing anything at all. And Ruby’s silver eyes shot to see lilac, which was still there to her relief. 

There were certain times when they talked about Summer and Yang’s eyes would turn to crimson because she missed her so. It was all too easy to forget that Raven left Yang when she was three years old, barely old enough to ever remember being her daughter. And that meant it was even easier to forget that Summer was also her mother. She had raised Yang as her own flesh and blood. 

But the saddest thing was that no one at all except for Taiyang, Raven and Qrow knew the truth of it all. That Yang effectively was Summer’s daughter, and that Ruby was effectively Raven’s daughter.

Tai had never told his daughters that Raven and Summer were married and in love more so than what they were with himself. So no one knew. And Yang thought Raven was dead anyway. 

The swallowing thoughts made Yang’s eyes water a little, but no one seemed to notice until Ruby did, and the little sister crawled across the blanket to cuddle her bigger sister, sipping a soda with her. “Hey, I bet Raven would be even louder than that for her little sun dragon. I bet she would have cheered you on to the final and you’d win it, Yang,” she cooed to her elder sister, kissing her cheek and then her lips, then presenting the rather solitary and cut off dragon a small slice of the pie. “Key lime pie? Pyrrha made it with love like she makes everything.”

Ruby hadn’t realised how that sounded, and Yang’s inner pun master took over. “Makes everything with love huh? Tell me about it, Ruby, I bet you know all about making love with Pyrrha,” she chuckled, causing all of the girls around them to chuckle, even Ciel as she was gently sipping orange juice and letting the ocean wind blow her navy blue hair back. 

The small leader of Team RWBY slapped her forehead with the palm of her hand and grumbled. “You know what I mean you dumbass!” She chastised Yang with a blushing face, all while Pyrrha blushed too and retired into obscurity near the back of their group. “I love you Yang,” Ruby then squeaked and cuddled her sister close, hiding her head in the crook of Yang’s arm. All was well again. Yang hummed back and held Ruby as close and as tenderly as Winter was holding Little Weiss, stroking her head the same as the pregnant angel did. 

“So, are we all ready for Vytal? Like, do we have our teams ready?” Nora broke the soft silence and asked, jumping to her feet and running to the plaque that was Summer Rose’s gave near the cliff edge, flailing her arms around a little. “Come on bitches sign off!”

“Team RWBY ready to go!” Ruby called out from in Yang’s warm embrace, the leader of her team ready to fight again for competition for the first time in well over a year. 

“Team EMNM fighting fit and ready to deal some damage!” Emerald said next, gesturing to herself, Neo, and the Twins as they all sipped cocktails like beach models, looking flawless and gorgeous. They could most probably slaughter the competition with their stunning good looks and no need for dirty tactics they could never kick. Neo was such a wild card they were mildly firing the small possibility that she could actually break someone’s body. 

“Team CFVY standing by ready for deployment!” Velvet said for Coco as she sipped a smooth cup of tea, actually hating the taste of coffee like the rest of her team. It was such a running joke that all they all drank was coffee that the day Coco told people they all hated it, people were stunned. Yatsu and Fox were coming back into the fold and competing with the bun and the gun for the tournament, Velvet could not wait to bust out her secret weapon. 

“And the newly formed Team PPNK is up and running,” team leader Pyrrha Nikos gracefully reported to her own partner, but more to the girls.

Team PPNK was their alternate secret weapon, one no one would see coming because it was relatively on the heels of the break of JNPR. Since Jaune had become partners with Mercury according to rumour, and Ren was in the wind, also assumedly leaving Beacon at the end of the year to become an unregistered Huntsman, Nora cooked up the plan to become Pyrrha’s official fighting partner. Teaming up with Neon and Penny Polendina, who were also becoming official partners, their team of PPNK was born and would enter the tourney to increase their experience and the chances of the girls taking home the trophy. It was such a plan. 

Ruby leapt up from her sister’s cuddles and ran over to Nora. “Then we’re all ready, we’re ready for the Vytal Tournament. Let’s do this!” She cheered, turning to the slab of hard stone that represented her mother’s scattered body. “Let’s do this for mom.”

“Yeah, I’ll get in on that,” Emerald spoke up, standing with her team and walking over to Ruby. Soon the rest of her own team did, even the drowsy Weiss. Then the rest of Team PPNK, and finally the rest of the girls, all standing behind Ruby and looking out to the horizon, to what new things could be coming on it.

They only knew how fun and exhilarating the tourney could be. But not of the dangers that were increasing behind its large shadow.

Less than a week later…

Ruby Rose leant further into the scope of her rifle and acquired the running target that was the Reese Chloris, the girl she’d met in Mistral months ago. Now she was about to shoot her, all in the name of friendly competition as Yang roped her into Ruby’s line of fire. 

And, pop. Ruby shot a round off directly towards Reese, the round that would knock her out of the ring and mean there was one less member of Team ABRN to deal with. But team leader Arslan Altan leapt and twirled in the air, knocking the round out of the sky and winking at Ruby as she did, smiling. 

“Hey! No fair!” Ruby shouted from her perch before switching her rifle back into scythe mode and leaping down to rejoin the fray. They had been fighting for about ten minutes already and Ruby had needed to get some energy back. The lightning lioness as Ruby was coming to call Ars was seemingly never out of energy, even more so than Yang, although the blonde dragon had an excuse, her semblance revitalised her with every hit. The small scythe wielder could only imagine how ragged Weiss and Blake were getting, fighting the two men around the arena. 

Arslan smiled to herself as she knocked the round out of the sky and continued running with her lightning path, waiting to come up on another member of RWBY to punch some more. She’d been given Yang and Weiss both equal runs for their lien and wanted to prey on the faunus or the leader. “Better take other elements into account Ruby Rose! You’re going down girl!” Ars shouted back as she ran and ran. 

“Ah yes and welcome back to the first bout of the long awaited fifty-second Vytal Tournament and Festival here at Beacon Academy in Vale,” Professor Port spoke into his microphone up above the fighting pit in the commentator’s box. He was smartly dressed, not in his burgundy red uniform of the teaching profession, but now in a white and black tux with a tie, still in his wine colour. He, of course, was joined by his partner in crime, teaching and commentating, Bartholomew Oobleck, in just the shirt, with his sleeves rolled up beyond his elbows. 

Two mugs of coffee were by them, Oobleck’s containing no doubt the fourth of the match. 

Port sipped his. The whole fight and the rest of them, all the fights all month long were being televised and shown to the audience arena. It was Schnee’s idea to televise the whole tournament, much to Peach’s protest, she was in charge while Ozpin was taking his leave. Peter Port was talking not only to the television audience but also the entire arena via loudspeaker. That was if he could be heard over the whole barrage of music Flynt Coal and his band were blasting for ambience to the fight.

He had been also hired by Sturm Schnee to make the tournament apter and appealing to audiences, adding music to fighting seemed to the SDC as a perfect campaign. As a sponsor, the prime sponsor, they were making millions if not billions of lien from the tournament thus far. And the attendance was phenomenal. 

“Still joined with me for the tournament is Professor Barty Oobleck, teacher here at Beacon Academy, and we’re in full swing with the first match - Team RWBY of Beacon versus Team ABRN of Haven. How’s the match fairing so far Barty?” Peter asked his colleague, who was studiously watching the events unfold as they happened. He was watching Blake and Ruby team up to hammer down on Arslan and Reese while Yang and Weiss did the same to Bolin and Nadir - the two men none of Team RWBY had met prior to this bout. They only knew the girls from their brief meeting in Mistral months ago. 

But still Bolin and Nadir put up a sporting fight against the brawler and the heiress. The two had to engage in their tag team combination as Flynt and his band made the crowd roar with intensity. 

“Well Pete I have got to say one thing about this opening match. They are just so intense!” Bartholomew Oobleck shouted into the microphone, and roared all around the arena, which only exacerbated the already thundering crowd. It was amazing, the air was boiling with the sport and Ruby, and her sister could do nothing except smile massive grins as they switched. Suddenly Weiss and Blake were together and hacking towards Nadir and Bolin as Yang was suddenly on her sister’s back and tumbling all around the arena’s combat field after Reese and Arslan on the former’s hoverboard. 

Yang cheered and screamed out with glee as the music flowed through her. She moved onto Ruby’s shoulder and shot herself forward like a comet right to the back of the hoverboard. With a shotgun blast downward, directly to the ground, she took the board out from under Reese and Ars, who both fell into Ruby’s grasp. 

The Team Leader shot herself forward too with a round from Crescent Rose and she went racing right at the two women, slashing right through their auras, and then on again, leaving them for Yang to mop up. 

And the little sun dragon did so. 

Right as she did, Qrow, Taiyang and a woman who had passed through security as Tai’s new girlfriend under the name of Onyx Murkrow, which of course was Raven under the visage of a facegraft perfectly stolen from the Schnee Dust Company, made their way to the top of the crowd seating. 

“Come on Raven we need to head to Peach’s box and get to Schnee,” Qrow called back as the elderly and still limping woman lagged behind a little. She was too engrossed in the fighting below like the rest of the crowd. She saw Ruby race forward with the blonde girl on her shoulders, and then the clash and crash of the hoverboard with Ruby flying off again with the red of her cape flowing perfectly behind her. 

She looked just like Summer, Raven thought, and then she saw Yang leap and crash into Arslan Altan and Reese Chloris. The green haired tomboy went soaring in the air, and then Yang was already after her.

Using Arslan as leverage, and Flynt’s ruckus from the hastily build stage in the middle of the atrium, Yang shot herself into the sky, knocking Arslan out for the count, her aura depleted, and she was still out and after Reese. 

Raven could have sworn she saw orange flaming wings burst out of Yang’s back, like some sort of phoenix or feathered dragon as she flew in the sky until finally she reached Reese and grabbed her heel. After that, she soon reached the woman’s chest and then they started to tumble back down to the ground, and the whole time, as Reese covered her face, Yang was punching shot after fiery shot into her. Only Raven could tell her birth daughter was holding back because she was smiling and fighting and making sure no real harm came to Reese. She was having fun, in fact, it looked to Raven that Yang was having the time of her life. And that was when the woman completely broke her cover. 

With an outstretched arm and a look of genuine pride in her eyes and smile, Raven punched the air and screamed at the top of her lungs, for herself and for Summer who could not have said it for all the years. 

“GO YANG!” Raven screamed into the sky as her daughter fell with Reese looking defeated. 

And the blonde looked right at her. Lilac eyes saw blood red and vice versa. Yang saw Raven and while it was under the facecraft, the disguise that she had crafted she could tell Yang knew it was her. 

Yang saw her mother for the first time since she had left her at age three, and they both froze. 

Ruby’s plan was falling apart as her sister fell until in the end she made the decision on the spur of the moment and ran as fast as she possibly could to catch Yang and let Reese fall right on top of Arslan. She only just made it right as Flynt and his band roared into a crescendo of guitar and drums. And Yang was okay, but Reese and Arslan were out for the count completely. 

“Oh! And it looks like Arslan Altan and Reese Chloris are out! Auras depleted they’re done for now,” Peter Port reported as soon as the dust settled and Ruby ad Yang was clear. Ruby still ran around the arena trying to wear down her own speed like some rocket propelled something. Faster than a car or a plane or even what she thought was a rocket. She was the fastest woman alive it seemed, closer to turning into lightning than rose petals, but that had all been part of the training, Ruby Rose focusing on getting faster and faster as her mother would have wanted. And for Yang, it had been forging and refining her anger and explosive temperament, and she had been doing a flawless job. As they both looked around the arena they could see the same training had paid off for Weiss and Blake. 

The former was summoning her knight in dust shining armour, and earning a massive cheer of her namesake from the crowd heralded by her pregnant sister. And Blake had summoned a whole host army of her copycats and they were kicking the living shit out of Bolin as Weiss was stomping all over Nadir. 

At the same time both men were forcibly evicted out of the arena, which was probably better than being absolutely crushed by the knight and Blake’s army of herself. Flynt and his band roared again with a massive crescendo and the entirety of the crowd rose to their feet in an applause so loud Ruby and Yang could barely hear themselves think as the former finally wore herself down to a stop and set Yang on the floor. 

Then Weiss and Blake made their ways over to the sisters and looked up to the principal box, where Sturm Schnee overlooked the arena battle with the iciest look in his eyes Weiss had ever seen. 

Ruby Rose screamed to herself under the roar of the thoroughly entertained crowd. “Ah! We won! We won! We beat ABRN! We freaking won! Ah!” She screamed to herself. Blake leant down and held Yang close, her eyes a little concerned about how Yang was looking, which was as if she had literally just seen some form of spectre - a ghost. 

“Yang? Are you okay?” Blake asked again, stroking her bondmate’s cheek and kissing her, Yang, however, waved her away and quickly got to her feet to bask in the earned applause. 

“Weiss? Are you okay?” Ruby asked, seeing the look of anger on her girlfriend’s face as she looked directly at her father for what had been the first time in a lot of months since even before Winter had fled to Vale. 

Weiss turned to Ruby and Yang to Blake. “I’m okay Ruby, but the bastard is not.”

“I’m okay Blake. But I think I just saw my mom…”

“You saw what?!” Nora yelled at the top of her lungs at the festival grounds that had been made up out of the school’s common areas, the grass serving as perfect grounds for the tents and stalls to be set up. It all looked like a multi-cultural carnival and Pyrrha and Ruby was busy looking around as the ginger, Blake, Weiss, Coco, Ciel and Neon all huddled around Yang as she explained what she thought she had seen on her way down. Nora was ablaze with anger, taking Yang utterly at her word right away as Ciel, Neon and Coco all reserved judgement and comment for the meanwhile.

They had to remember, Klein had told all of them during the holidays that Raven was dead or at least found dead at the ruins of Sturm’s private lodgings. There was no way she could have survived what the butler explained had become of the mansion. And yet Yang could have sworn, as sure as the sun hung above them, that she had seen Raven Branwen, her mother. 

“Yang, Klein told us that Raven… Well,” Weiss tried to reiterate to Yang, taking her friend and servant completely at his word during the winter. This whole thing had catastrophe written all over it. 

Blake stood silently, not choosing to believe one party or another, having so many ugly memories sounding exactly like something like this. Already the masked face of Adam Taurus was flashing in and out of her mind and when she looked at Yang she was seeing his red eyes already. 

It pained her to not think about it because it was so easy, but already there were so many similarities between Yang and Adam. And if Blake was a beauty, then either of them could have been her beast. That was… If Adam were still alive…

“I know what Klein told us and I know what I saw!” Yang barked at Weiss, tossing her apologetic hand on her shoulder away and the ends of her hair flaring just a little. Neon smelled the brimstone and already wished she was on the other end of the carnival park with Ruby and Pyrrha. But Team PPNK was up next and the redheaded team leader needed some form of clarity before the start of their match with Team BRNZ. 

Coco and Ciel let out huffs and suddenly there was an electrifying silence between all of them, the feline faunuses wishing to high heavens that they were not there at all. Blake had thought that her team’s first victory would be set with much jubilation, finally like the days of their first year. But evidently no, it was only to be met with and angry Yang and animosity between herself and anyone who would have called her grieving only now. What was even surfing through her thick skull? Was she even seeing sense? Or was the visage of her dead mother messing with her? Catalysed by the massive amounts of adrenaline and mixture of all kinds of chemicals that had been induced by the tournament? Was she about to go through a psychotic break? Or was it stress?

Whatever it was, Blake could not figure it out, as she looked into Yang’s set blood red eyes she felt closed off from her mind, and locked away from how the firecracker was feeling. They never were so distant and closed off from each other. As Blake felt like crying herself she looked to Weiss, who was already doing just that and trying to look away from everyone so that they couldn’t see the leaking from her icy blue eyes.

Such a horrible victory. Or at least it was until Neon broke the silence, or attempted to. 

“Well there ain’t much use in standing here in quiet. C’mon firecracker let’s get our asses on some rides huh?” Neon attempted to penetrate Yang’s mental and semblance wall. She did her best, and it just seemed to be enough as she probed again. “They got the twizlers, we all know how much you like ‘em Yang-Yang,” Neon chuckled, which made Blake smile too, and Ciel and Coco, Weiss was just drying her eyes but she could feel another aura enter the area. 

She turned to see the minty hair of Emerald, followed by the reds of Pyrrha and Ruby, with Velvet also in tow. “Em!” Weiss cried and ran to the minty haired beauty, wrapping her arms around her tanned girlfriend. “We won!” She followed, cuddling Emerald close, feeling a welcome warmth between them and towards her. Nora soon piled in on the cuddle and then Blake too as Neon and Yang cuddled, the former trying to cheer the grumpy blonde up from her spat and inner demons over her mother. 

“I saw! You girls looked amazing out there on the field!” Emerald cheered, cuddling the small entourage back, Velvet included before Coco, her own bondmate could get to her and kiss the daylights out of her face. It was all beautiful, they had all seemed to pass the first round with Team RWBY, even though Emerald’s team too had their first match coming up after Team SSSN which were in turn after PPNK. 

“Yeah, we saw too, you girls did look pretty awesome out there.” A silky smooth and at the same time a long forgotten and shunned voice said from off in the distant. 

“You’d have sworn you’d been in there non-stop since the train crash.” Came another, an unknown, spicy and warm sounding, like some exotic musical instrument from Vacuo. Something none of the girls had heard before. But the first one, they all knew all too well. 

For Pyrrha and Nora, a little too well. 

“Jaune,” Pyrrha spat into the open air between her group and his. 

“Oh boy,” Ruby meekly whispered to herself as both parties quickly broke all hugs and suddenly were standing off against each other. Girls vs Jaune and his group; Mercury Black, Amber, Lie Ren, sheep faunus Ambrosia Salad, and the most strange of all, Cinder Fall. 

To Be Continued…


	26. Stayin' Alive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Glynda steps into something she isn't quite sure she should have as Ozpin returns to Beacon Academy, and she learns why he has been away as well as Taiyang's involvement in his operation. Watts and Ironwood meet and become friendly and Pyrrha and Jaune finally meet again for the first real time since their argument. And Ruby Rose sees a face she last saw when she was one year old...

After the match had ended, the floor of the arena was open for meets and greets as well as opportunities for the other teams to mingle. Even the Professors and other such studious types were amidst the crowds, all while Flynt and his band played a low and background lull to entertain. It was an entirely new and foreign affair to all, including Glynda, who was attending as coordinator for Teams RWBY, EMNM, CFVY and PPNK. 

She was a little out her depth, feeling very underdressed, considering the whole arena had seemingly be turned into a sort of open roofed ballroom with some slight funk playing from Flynt. She was alone too, insistent on Emerald heading to the fairground to enjoy the festival with the rest of the girls. Winter had had to go home, she was feeling the downside to pregnancy - sickness and sore feet, as well as her breasts. 

Which left poor Professor Goodwitch on her own in a role she had had to approach as the Professor and not the beautiful and bust elder girlfriend of so many younger women. The blonde felt even self-conscious all alone, after being surrounded by her girls for so many months without being away from them. Now was just different, cold and even strange. 

Until she found a very familiar and welcome face. “Well, well, well, Professor Goodwitch, a pleasure to see ya beautiful face again,” the all too beautiful voice of Matte Skye called out behind the wandering blonde. 

Glynda nearly jumped as she saw the tanned ensign, clad in their Atlas uniform and looking still stunning in it, with the gleam from the white metal shoulders and the pristine crispness from the white fabric. They looked amazing, and professional - Professionally amazing. 

“Matte! How amazing to see you again darling,” Glynda cooed and leant down to kiss the tanned non-binary on their cheeks. Matte, of course, took a little advantage and cupped Glynda’s face for a passionate peck on her lips. It had been about three or four months since they had kissed her or any of the girls last. 

“Yeah ya telling me Professor, looking hot as always, where’s Penny? Or the others?” Matte asked, calm as always and then slightly concerned that they couldn’t see the bright and beautiful orange of Penny Polendina’s hair. They had missed Penny more than ever. The lack of the ginger synth filled Matte with an absence that tall and busty Glynda could instantly make out and she grew a little sad for them. 

She stood up straighter and cracked a small ache in her back; she was filling the official role of coordinator and coach for several teams and it had resulted in a few bodily pains. Glynda looked at the small name tag and badge attached to Matte’s proud breast and saw that they were the same. 

“I’m sorry dear, Penny is enjoying the festival on the grounds and in Vale with the rest of the girls. I take it you saw Team RWBY’s match, given you’re a coordinator yourself?” The blonde deflected, eager to know just who Matte was coaching. 

It was a pity Matte couldn’t answer, for a shriek rippled across the small makeshift ballroom grounds, right from Peach. “Glynda! Darling! Lover! You are here!” Penelope in her pink sweater and small cape called out across the rows of aristocrats and corporate sponsors Sturm Schnee had no doubt attracted. There was one man who had taken the woman's attention, a man in a whisky coloured long trench coat and with a static shirt under it. But he had blended back into mingling with the rich folk as Flynt and his small band softly serenaded them. Glynda crumpled her face, her brow flattening as soon as Penelope called her name and Matte drifted away towards the entrance/exit of the arena, only saying goodbye by means of a silent wave. The poor elder blonde was stuck with Peach and judging by how tipsy she looked with the two glasses of champagne in her hands, Matte would rather leave Glynda to her fate and find the gorgeous Penny. 

“I swear Penelope, the next time to alert everyone to my presence at a mixer, is the time I run my fist through that incredibly busty chest of yours my love,” Glynda politely smiled to her fellow teacher as she took the glass of wine meant for her. Peach was looking at her with little drunken eyes and plumped lips. Glynda was hardly that surprised when Peach leant in and kissed her full on the lips. She sighed. “And the next time you kiss me that well you have to promise Barty isn’t watching,” Glynda added, wiping the slight amount of saliva from Penelope’s lippy assault. 

The bigger woman wobbled just a little bit on her heels, her decorum of acting Headmistress had dissolved for a moment. “Glynda, would you please care to accompany me to the ladies? I believe there is something I must discuss with you about class marks this term.”

“Excuse me, dear?” Glynda asked, but as Peach looked at her at an angle, she could tell the woman needed to tell her something certainly not to be discussed here of all places, and quickly both women scurried off like a pair of foxes. 

And that was when Glynda saw the man in the whisky coat in the corner of her eye, shifting over to another man in a rather greyly coloured long coat that Glynda thought resembled Ironwood, but he had yet to arrive. What was going on? She had not seen James arrive and he had certainly not said hello to her, they were supposed to be comrades, friends, and confidantes. He had been invaluable in helping her and the girls with Winter, Penny, Ciel and even Emerald and the Twins. The blonde was certainly terribly confused. 

Still, the man in the whisky coat, with a twitchy moustache that looked more horrid than Sturm’s approached the man that was James Ironwood, standing tall and full of himself. He tossed the General a small glass of brandy and very much encroached on his personal space. 

“Mister Watts, what do I owe the pleasure?” Ironwood asked taking the brandy with warm friendliness. He and the man with the moustache and long coat certainly knew each other. Watts smiled as he looked into Ironwood’s eyes, even clued into why and how they were so off and drifting all around the room. Even Ironwood’s voice was subtly different, deeper, and hoarser as if he was in the middle of a cold, or a cough. “Enjoying the shindig I hope sir,” James continued before sipping the beverage that had been thrust into his hand. 

Watts’s moustache almost moved on its own, twitching with delight. “Oh, it’s a fairly well put together affair, small and local, toned down, which is perhaps good to kick off the start of the Vytal Tournament. But that’s not what bothers me Mr Ironwood,” Watts told him, getting even closer and directing the General’s eyes to Peach and Glynda as they walked ever closer and hastily to the entrance to the bathrooms. 

“Persay, James, do you know or recognise those women?” Watts asked, smiling as if he already knew who they were and how James would know them. 

“Why yes I do Mr Watts,” Ironwood told him, his voice matching his name and his whole exterior rippling with anger and hatred as he looked at the back of the blonde hair and the plumpness of Peach’s rather large posterior.

“That’s Professor Penelope Peach,” his voice grew even harsher and Watts smiled a little more. “And Glynda Goodwitch…”

Penelope tossed Glynda into the bathroom almost, the men’s too, and slammed the door shut, placing a small locking rune on the handle with a snap of her wrists. She needed them to be completely undisturbed and silent too, hence a quick silencing ward around the frame of the door to boot. And then Peach stood straight, any facade of drunkenness dissipating until she was completely fine, and then she turned to Glynda. 

“Penelope, what the hell is going on? James gets here and doesn’t even say hello to me? And then Yang claims she saw Raven in the crowd this morning which is why she nearly died on impact? And not to mention the shifty man with the whisky coloured trench coat. And where the dust is Ozpin?” Glynda barked at Penelope as she frantically ran through all the strange goings on in her mind and they soon started to pile up. She’d been looking for Ozpin longer than anything and she had prayed he would turn up before the tournament. Technically speaking Glynda should have been acting Headmistress, but with so much to do, Peach assumed the role, even bypassing Peter Port because he was confirmed to be Master of Ceremony and Oobleck was never on the deputy list. 

A sudden and astute, and all too familiar voice came from one of the empty stalls and as Glynda turned, she saw a rather withered looking Ozpin with half of his face covered by a massive patch. He looked as if he had been chewed up by an Ursa and spat back out again. What had the hell happened to him?

“I’m here Glynda, and that man you saw was Doctor Watts, an invited guest of Mr Schnee’s, he’s head of Watt Industries and supplies power to almost eighty percent of Remnant towns and cities with protection grids like Vale’s,” he told her stern and roughly, all before another voice came from a second stall, Taiyang Xiao Long’s.

“And the reason why Yang claims she saw Raven in the crowd is because she did, and she saw right through the face graft hologram she was wearing,” he confessed, heavy chested and his shoulders slacking after he did and while he heard the high-heeled steps of his ex-wife joining their little cult now. 

Onyx Murkrow, or rather, Raven Branwen stepped out and the small face graft on her face, that altered her features and made her look like a completely different person deactivated and she removed the collar from under her tunic. She was the same black haired, red eyed ex-wife of Tai’s and wife of Summer’s Glynda had only really met at times like these when Vale was truly threatened. 

“Hello again Glynda, thank you for looking after Yang, and Ruby.”

It took almost all Glynda Goodwitch had inside of her not to reach across the bathroom and literally tear Raven’s face from her head. They had to be quiet still, there was only so much a rune from Peach would do, so Glynda tried to retain her anger and shift to unanswered questions. “Raven? How? You died in Sturm’s Mansion… Yang thinks you’re dead!”

Taiyang stepped between them, sensing anger rising he moved to mediate and block, as a senator almost. “And that’s how it has to stay Glynda, Yang has to think Raven’s dead, otherwise her cover is blown to Sturm and he’ll know why we’re here.”

“And why the dust are you even here Tai? Aside from showing your daughters, you care about their careers? I suspect Qrow’s here too? Down in Vale drinking himself into a coma?” Glynda scolded, instantly spitting bile at him and Raven both as Ozpin stayed well away, even with his looking face, and Peach did the same, but Glynda spotted the grey haired Headmaster try to skirt her gaze. “And don’t you think you’re off the hook Oz! Where the hell have you been? We got back from Atlas and Peach told me you took a leave of absence for health reasons? I mean fucking hell I’ve been kept in the dark for four fucking months like all those girls!” She thundered, losing her temper know the more she mulled it over to talk about it. 

She was absolutely right. Since she and the girls returned from Atlas she had been told absolutely nothing. Glynda got back to a school where Professor Slate was teaching double his classes, with Professor Honeydew helping away from special support and with Penelope Peach leading the charge and the preparations for the Tournament. And now Ozpin was hiding in a bathroom with half of his face covered, with Raven Branwen back from the dead under a visage and with Taiyang not even seeing his daughters. 

The world had been turned upside down and Glynda felt sick to her stomach. 

“I’ll ask you all once more - What the fuck is happening here people? And why the hell wasn’t I told right away? What are we dealing with?”

Meanwhile

“Hey, Pyrrha… Long time no see,” Jaune very gently and very calmly slithered into the open and warm air between his entourage, and hers. The redhead instinctively held Ruby’s smaller hand a little tighter as soon as she heard the blonde’s pathetic voice. It riled her up more than anything else ever could, and all it did was bring back the stupid memory of her and him leaning outside the Mess Hall with cotton candy in their hands. Her soul welling with the most important of decisions and his stupidity ruining everything they ever had. She could still not even move on.

What he had said to her, what he had been using her for, and then what he did afterwards to Weiss…

The heiress had already left, she took one look at the blonde, simmered with anger and then had to be removed by Blake and Yang. Needless to say Neon was sad there would be no chance for the Twizzlers, she was excited to take Yang on them, which in turn gave her a reason to be peeved at Jaune for turning up. 

And what had Emerald positively shaking with Coco and Velvet, was the sight of Cinder. She couldn’t stay still with the images of what the evil woman had inflicted on her in her mind, surfacing right up to the surface and haunting her in broad daylight. Nothing had been said between them, and no one was looking at either of them except each other. All Emerald could do was tremble and bite her tongue as she remembered and felt all over again what Cinder had done to her. 

Emerald Sustrai, crossed her legs and tried to keep her thighs as close together as she possibly could. Her missing outer labia were killing her, the memory of them being burned away by Cinder stabbing her there again and again. 

“What are you doing here Jaune?” Pyrrha asked, trying to sound as clear as she could with the anger welling in her throat, she was lucky she had little seventeen-year-old Ruby at her side, or she would be calling Milo and Akouo to her from the weapon hall and trying to kill him. But there would be time for that sooner rather than later. 

Amber at the back rolled her eyes, and instantly Ruby saw it, and from there it was as if the fire from the taller amazon was sucked all up by the smaller Team Leader. “Something to say, Miss? What’s the problem?” She called in a gritty and feisty voice right at Amber like a viper. 

“Well it’s a bit of a stupid question, isn’t it? Jaune’s here with us? And as competitors in the Vytal Tournament, and partners of those competitors, we’re allowed to roam the festival ground aren’t we?” Amber tutted, talking more to Pyrrha than to little Ruby who she instantly disregarded, treating her like a small child. 

The redhead and a few of the others gasped a little audibly and even comically to Amber, who sniggered in turn. “You’re competitors?” Pyrrha asked, repeating the information. It was then when the sheep faunus Ambrosia came to the front to explain. 

“Well, is it not obvious Pyrrha? We’re students, we’re allowed to compete.”

Nora peeked her head around shot daggers of pure hate at Jaune. “Well, who the hell is your coordinator? You have to have one this time! We have Glynda, who do you have?” She asked, and she was completely correct. Thanks to a new rule imposed to cut through lacklustre teams and make the whole process more entertaining if not corrupt and bastardised, Sturm had determined that his Vytal Tournament would require that Teams need a coordinator or coach to allow them to compete for the prize. Teams RWBY, PPNK, EMNM and CFVY had Glynda, and as a Professor, at Beacon, she was a perfect example of coordinator and coach. They would have had Winter too really, but with her pregnancy, she was not the smart choice, which was evident in her early departure. 

As far as the girls could see, Jaune’s team, which was him, Mercury, Ambrosia, and Ren who was remaining more silent and unbiased than ever, had no coach or coordinator, and Cinder would not count as an ex-felon, which disqualified Roman also. Amber, they had no idea who she was, there was no one. 

“They have Peach, pretty girl,” Amber countered a little proudly and slightly full of herself. For some reason, her bitchiness in front of the girls and her defence of her mates had increased to the point of mild ugliness. It was then when Pyrrha wished Weiss and Yang would have stayed. 

“Professor Peach?” Pyrrha repeated again, not believing that their coordinator could be the acting Headmistress. Did Glynda know this? Did she not tell them? Did she know that Jaune’s team were competitors? Pyrrha suddenly felt destroyed more than anything, rather than anger, it had all been absorbed by the shaking Ruby. 

“Hey listen, Missy! Leave us alone! Get him out of here before I even break his legs for what he did to Pyrrha!” The little scythe wielder snapped, bringing the shameful memory back to both Jaune and Pyrrha simultaneously. 

Before Amber or Ruby could speak some more, Jaune looked up and opening his lips. “Pyrrha,” he spoke softly and croaky, his old tiny boy’s voice that the redhead had once found oddly cute and charming in the most of the platonic ways, only how whenever she heard it she wanted to completely break the source of it. It was so pathetic and stupid, his childish voice and above all, it was a complete lie. To Pyrrha, it was a mirage, because deep down she knew Jaune was not that, he was something worse and crude and a user. He had used her back then and she could not, would not allow him to ever become friendly to her again. He was a stupid and using boy who would never know what he had and how good it was until it was what Pyrrha was now. Something that hated him and wanted to bring him down more pegs than she could. 

“Stop it Jaune, shut up, shut the hell up Jaune, you know what I feel towards you, I told you right after you assaulted Weiss that night,” Pyrrha told him, silencing him and shutting him off. Amber and Ruby had a lightning bolt between their foreheads they were so close to attacking each other. 

“I didn’t do anything to Weiss, Pyrrha seriously!”

“And you have the audacity to lie to me about it! She left Jaune! With Yang and with Blake! We all know what you did after me and you nearly fought! You damn coward! You’re a coward and a downright assaulter! You and Cardin Winchester, you’ll both meet your end before the end Jaune. I’ll see you in the arena hopefully!” Pyrrha snapped at the blonde and walked away without anything more, all of the girls bar Ruby following, rather be away than to look at him or his group again. Nora practically burned him with her eyes when she turned around to glare at him. 

But Ruby remained, staring Amber down, or rather, staring her up, as Ruby was almost a foot shorter. 

“I hope you get a clue and see him for what he’s done, and I hope we can meet and fight, no one treats my girlfriends like that, whatever the dust your name is!” Ruby scolded. Amber almost laughed, however. 

“Oh Rubes, I know more than you do about this bullshit. You wanna ask Pyrrha Nikos about how she knows me, and what really happened between her and Jaune.”

Ruby reeled a little, but before she could take her fighting stance Amber looked her in the eyes and whispered. “Ask her about Amber and the Vault. Ozpin’s Vault.” And before Ruby could ask another question, Amber was already leaving with Jaune and the rest, and Ruby was running to Pyrrha, to hold her hand. Whatever that had turned into and whatever Amber had meant by asking Pyrrha about her, Ruby wanted absolutely no part of it, she wanted the experience expunged from her mind and thus she pushed it back, as she took Pyrrha’s trembling hand. They walked on and on, with the rest of the group covering Emerald and getting her to a more stable point. Seeing Cinder had cataclysmically shaken her. 

“Come on ladies! What are we gonna do before the dance? We still have time to get on a few rides!” Nora cheered, which sparked Ruby to cheer too, pulling Pyrrha forward as she ran to her girlfriends and to kiss all of them she could. She then passed to Emerald and Nora took Pyrrha’s vacant hand. “Everything okay Pyr?” The ginger double checked. 

Pyrrha wiped her eye, there was a faint tear threatening to escape but she caught it before it could. “I can’t stand the sight of him anymore, not after that horrible day, or that whole week. Nora, he still makes it seem like he’s the hero and I’m the one who did it all wrong even after what he tried with Weiss,” the redhead bitterly spat, she was again full of rage over how Jaune even try to deny his actions back then. Over what he tried to do to the heiress even just after she’d got with the rest of her team. 

“Hey,” Nora spoke softly, like the night after Jaune took his leave from Beacon after his appalling actions. The night Pyrrha and Nora shared and when Pyrrha had finally told the ginger she was transgender. She stopped Pyrrha and stood on her tiptoes, even pulling Pyrrha’s face into hers to allow them both to snatch a beautiful kiss in the middle of the fairground and a little part of Nora hoped that Jaune turned around or was at an angle where he could see her smooching Pyrrha. She despised him as much as Pyrrha did over what he had said to her and how he had treated her for months when the redhead had been training him. It was a disgrace. “He’s an asshole Pyrrha, and I hope by the spirit of the shattered moon that we get to kick his and his team’s ass in the draft, even if that means kicking Ren’s ass too.”

Pyrrha chuckled and kissed Nora again, soon forgetting or repressing all about Jaune and Amber and the rest of it. “How is Ren?” 

“He’s great! But he’s thinking of leaving Beacon this year, too many bad memories, he’s thinking of taking up a dojo, bakery or even moving to Vacuo and becoming an unofficial Huntsman anyway,” Nora informed her, smiling and even blushing when thinking of Ren. It just showed Pyrrha that no matter how much had happened and how much could happen, at least the bond between Nora and Ren could be completely destroyed. And that was amazing. 

They walked in silence for a few minutes, around the fairground enjoying the sights and the stalls and completely moving past the horrible encounter. There would be time to really fight with Jaune and Team JAMR, but it wasn’t now and it wasn’t going to be anywhere else except inside the arena, and Pyrrha could certainly wait for that. 

For the meanwhile, she wanted to enjoy the rest of the day before they had to retire home to get ready for the dance, which no doubt Winter and Ciel had already begun to prepare the dresses for. Glynda too if she was done with the uppers mixer. They did pity her for having to be the coordinator. 

Later…

“Do you really think going to the dance is a good idea with Pyrrha and Emerald going too?” Mercury asked the room, as Cinder made little circles on her expanded belly with her lazy index finger. She was more focused on the next meal or an immediate source of smoked salmon as her cravings kicked in. 

Amber and Jaune were both in the bedroom, hastily getting suits on as Roman tried to find a dress for Merc that had not been tarnished by a night out or was actually clean. With Amber training all of the team for the Tournament and Cinder pregnant, and Roman running the shop alone, with a booming business, laundry had stalled if not stopped completely. Pretty soon they’d be living in an unclean apartment too small for all of them as it was. They needed to upgrade certainly before the baby, little Alicia Fall, was to be born. 

The raven haired pregnant half maiden scoffed, a little pissed off over what had happened at the fairground and wanting to smack Pyrrha up certainly. However Emerald was a totally different story. “Well, I for one say Pyrrha needs to grow up and move on, holding a grudge over something like what you did honey is invalid and unjust,” Cinder called into the bedroom with a rather idle look that was bordering on either hungry or just plain bored.

She couldn’t go to the dance, not because she was pregnant, but because Peach, despite helping save her life, would not let her in the hall with that many people of importance. Roman too for that matter. 

They were both confined to the upper lodgings of the shop for tonight with nibbles and movies, and each other’s arms. 

Amber shot her head around the corner of the door to the bedroom passed the hall and gave a comical look. “Ooooh, look who has a little case of rivalry with the pretty redhead,” she teased in a very masculine manner as she tied the collar of her suit. Amber didn’t often wear suits to a party but was feeling like branching out and exploring her gender fluidity. Her tease made Cinder smile, and then pout. 

“Oh come on she’s not pretty!” The other half maiden called back with a furrowed brow and an upset bottom lip. 

Then Merc had to jump in from behind the small bar they had behind the main sofa. “Really Cindy? You seriously look at Pyrrha Nikos and don’t think that woman is gorgeous?” He asked in an incredulous voice, as if in disbelief. It was fairly hardwired around Vale at least that Pyrrha Nikos was very beautiful, and most women found her irresistible as a lesbian. 

Cinder even stopped for a second, as did the rest of the apartment, which was even more comical and Amber had a grin on her face that was trying to hold back a burst of laughter. She knew Cinder, of course, found Pyrrha attractive, there was not a woman particularly alive that hardly could. Even Amber found her pretty, even if she disliked her heavily after the encounter earlier in the day. 

“Well… I mean she’s not ugly… She’s pretty okay?!” Cinder struggled, causing laughter to erupt. “Get ready Amber and stop looking at me like that I’m still a woman okay?!”

“Mot de Cambronne, Cinder Fall you useless bisexual,” Mercury tutted behind her as Amber and Jaune quickly finished themselves off and the blonde hurried into the bathroom to sort his hair and smells as Amber came into the living space tying her cufflinks. She looked amazing. Even looking at Cinder in Roman’s recliner she gave a sexual wink and blew her a kiss before looking to Roman who was doing his usual thing of cooking naked in his pink apron; bacon and smoked salmon for Cinder as Mercury read one of his favourite comics. The dress had been found previously and now the bedroom was ready for him to change and make himself up. “Well this is going to take a while so get comfortable dolls, merde,” Mercury cursed again, drifting into the bedroom to pull himself up. 

Amber sat on the sofa with Cinder, kissing her cheek and chuckling just a little to herself as she thought more of the reply to Pyrrha’s beauty, and then Amber thought more of the confrontation. “Are you sure you’re gonna be okay staying in with Roman? I can not go, I’m sure Merc would rather have Jaune to himself anyway.”

Cinder squirmed and pulled Amber a little closer into a warm cuddle, no doubt creasing her shirt. “No really it’s fine Amber, I’ll be okay, and you deserve to have a night out, having fun, really you do,” Cinder cooed, cuddling her other half so close. “Just please be safe, we don’t know who’s at this tournament this time.”

“Come on Cindy, what’s the worst that could happen?”

Amber has slightly wished she hadn’t said those exact words upon her arrival to the main hall of Beacon Academy, seeing the sheer scope of it with so many bodies around topped with faces she knew and didn’t. It wasn’t like the night out with Cinder, nothing like that. It was weird and small and relative. They were all kids and students and competitors and she was a woman in her early twenties not even fighting in Vytal but on the sidelines, in case things went wrong. 

There was, of course, Flynt’s band, just starting to play with some rock solid guitar riffs, with one lead and a rhythm even over the heavy bassline. The drums were a little muted and echoing and all the girls and boys, from all different academies, were stomping their feet and raising their hands like crazed zombies already. 

Ruby and Pyrrha, both in differing red gowns took Amber’s eye, and she did her best to divert Jaune’s to the side, to see Ren dancing with Fox, Yatsu and Ambrosia. The rest of the floor was taken by teammates from Vale, Vacuo, Mantle and Mistral, she saw a tanned ensign looking a little shorter than the rest with a tiny baby Deathstalker on their shoulder leashed up. Then one of the snipers she had seen in training with a bow tie around her neck and a beanie to cover half of her face almost. 

Around the sides of the dancefloors stood the teachers and professors and coordinators; she spotted Glynda Goodwitch and Penelope Peach, Peter Port, Bartholomew Oobleck, even a few she remembers from Haven Academy. Professor Leo Citron was standing proud, his mane and clubby faunus ears making him look like a proud lion, the one he exhumed as a personality. Amber remembered meeting him a few times from her days as official Maiden and Huntress and thus waved to him. 

Jaune noticed as the thumb of the guitar pulsed and sent the dancers raving in all directions. “You know him?” The blonde asked, holding Amber’s hand and gesturing to Professor Leo. 

“Of course I lived in Mistral for a bit when I was a proper Maiden. Hell I even stayed at the Academy when I had nowhere else to sleep, Leo made me very comfortable and even asked me to stay as a Teacher a few times,” Amber said between smiling lips and continued to wave to Leo. His warm grin and even warmer paw waving in return made her blush just a little. 

However Jaune disliked it more than he would ever tell her, and his brows flattened. Even Pyrrha spotted that in a sidewards glance from where she was dancing with her girlfriends. She did not want to know why he suddenly looked discouraged bordering on angry. A talk with the girls when they got home to get ready had made the wise and poignant young amazon realise she would do best to just enjoy herself and win the next match, work to the final and fight the hatred out of her system. So that was exactly what Pyrrha was going to do. 

Jaune bit his lip and swallowed his breath before gripping Amber’s hand and asking her the stupidest question he could as she continued to wave to Professor Leo. “Did you sleep with him?”

“What? Why the hell would that matter? And no I didn’t. He’s a good friend Jaune. Fuck,” Amber spat, taking her hand back. He knew it was a stupid question and as he isolated himself in a little bubble, Pyrrha looked again and smiled a little at the scene. 

But the crowd kept dancing and the band kept playing, and the teachers and professors kept talking, conversing, and drinking the non-alcoholic punch, except for Sturm at the back of the room still eying up Weiss as she danced with Blake and Yang, white, yellow and black gowns shimmering in the lights of the dance floor as the guitars kicked into overdrive and went on clashing solos. It was, for once, looking like a normal evening.

Only Glynda Goodwitch could not shake the whole plan that Ozpin, Taiyang and Raven had told her about earlier, it was almost haunting her. 

The scope of it, and how deep it ran and how much she had been kept in the dark since returning from Atlas, it was enough to actually make her sick a little and the punch, which she had no idea who made, was not helping. She was going to throw up, she was going to be sick to her stomach and plunge it all over the floor to cause a scene. She had to leave, to get out and to the bathrooms, to put it in the toilet and then head home and prepare to tell the girls. Could she even do that? Could she tell Yang and Ruby about Raven and Taiyang? Or Weiss and Winter about Schnee? Could she tell any of it? 

Was it best that Glynda keeps quiet? To save them all the trouble?

“Hey Glynda, come on and get up here we know you can belt us all out a song!” Flynt called from the stage, ruining her plan to secretly disappear to the toilet. Suddenly the spotlight was on her and all the dancers, even the teachers, were giving her a lulled clap.

They actually wanted her to sing. But who had told him she could, that she used to in school and she still had the small talent for one song that was highly embarrassing? 

As Glynda looked and scanned around the room her eyes went to Peach, but the larger woman was shaking her head. And then Glynda’s lime eyes found Emerald and Weiss and Coco, and they were all smiling and laughing a little. It was them. They had told Flynt because of how Weiss had had to play her piano and sing with him over the trip to Atlas. This was horrible. 

“Come on girl, give these people what they wanna see you know you wanna!” Flynt called down to her and begrudgingly Glynda accepted, tossing her glass of punch to Peach to hold while she embarrassed herself for her girlfriends. All she kept thinking was ‘what is the worst that could happen?’

But something worse was about to happen, as Ruby looked past Glynda at the door to see something she never expected… Blood red eyes, masked by the veil of shadow, and then they were gone in a flash. But Ruby knew who exactly they belonged to, and her hands left Pyrrha’s as the taller redhead clapped for Glynda as she got up on stage. Ruby had to inspect the eyes, follow them, it was her, and Ruby had so many questions, so many. 

Crescent Rose was propped up against the door waiting for her, for some mysterious reason. That reason was Zwei, he had carried it to her, for he knew she was going to need it, and they both walked along the muted and unlit corridor together. “Stay with me boy,” Ruby ordered him, feeling a hand of fear and bravery both wrapping themselves around her. She knew whose eyes they were, and she had to find her. 

Ruby had to find her for Yang, and even for herself, to find out what happened, Ruby had as much a stake in finding the shadowy long-lost mother as her half sister did. But Ruby was the one to see her eyes this time. Twice they had been seen in one day. And Ruby would seek them out. 

For a moment the little leader thought she should go back for Yang, and for Weiss and Blake so that they would all be able to chase her down, but there was no time, Ruby couldn’t let her escape. She quickly found the light switch and reached for it. 

“Raven!” She called and flipped the switch. Immediately she saw the shadow around the corner flee for her life. And Ruby chased after her, snapping into her semblance to fly around the corner. “Stop Raven!”

Glynda reached the microphone and gestured to the pianist. “C minor, put it in C minor please,” she asked him and he nodded with a smile. “Where have all the good men gone? And where are all the gods? Where’s the streetwise Hercules to fight the rising odds? Isn’t there a white knight upon a fiery steed?

“Late at night I toss and I turn and I dream of what I need…”

To Be Continued...


	27. Give It Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ruby gives chase to Raven Branwen as all of her girlfriends but Glynda are left unaware, and the young team leader learns that all are not as they seem around the town and school. Something else is acting during this tournament, and Ruby learns that she and her girlfriends are suddenly caught unawares in the middle of it. Meanwhile Watts and Salem discuss the next move of the strategem and Yang comes to terms with what Raven really means to her with Blake.

From Apollo Nikos to Professor Penelope Peach, Acting Headmistress of Beacon Academy;

Miss Peach, you imposed on the honour of my person and my forefathers by denying my request to attend the festival and oversee the tournament, when Mister Schnee has expressed his deepest wishes to see me attend. I’m afraid I simply cannot and will not take a blanket refusal from you or your school, least not while Professor Ozpin continues to elude you. 

I shall be travelling to Vale first thing in the morrow, and I expect to have an audience with both you, Professor Goodwitch, Miss Winter Schnee and my child. 

Apollo Nikos.

“C minor, put it in C minor would you?” Glynda asked the pianist as she begrudgingly took her position behind the microphone stand and the band shifted behind her, with Flynt taking position behind his trumpet, in between the guitarist and bassist. The keyboard player, standing right behind the pianist with his illustrious organ piece was already sweating bullets over how fast he would have to play. Glynda was terrified and did not want to sing at all, she was feeling sick enough as it was.

That feeling tripled when she saw little Ruby Rose secrete herself through the doorway on the far end of the room to the corridors leading to the dorms and the courtyard. 

Pyrrha was looking around to try and spot where Ruby had gone, she was holding the redhead’s hand one second and was gone the next while the crowd was applauding Glynda. And as the redhead looked around the entire room, she spotted Jaune looking as perplexed as she was, as if he had suddenly lost Amber. Quickly, Pyrrha crossed the floor to Blake, Weiss and Yang, who were all bubbly as ever and enjoying the evening massively after the day of mixed receptions. 

“Have you ladies seen Ruby? She was holding my hand one second and now she’s nowhere to be found!” Pyrrha cried over the lulling applause. 

“She’s probably popped to the restrooms? Surely, come Pyrrha dance with me!” Weiss called, looking as if she had been dropping little sprinkles of spirit to her glasses of punch. She took Pyrrha’s hand a little forcefully before the amazon could say no and Blake rested her delicate hands on Yang’s strong and admirable shoulders. She loved the dragon’s shoulders and arms, thick and strong with a secret ability to stay gentle and experienced in other capacities. “Come on Pyrrha dance with me!” Weiss droned on, doing nothing to settle Pyrrha’s sudden bout of nerves. And it was spotting the lack of Amber that had done it. She saw the spark between Amber and Ruby earlier in the day, not the good type, the spark that could engulf both women in a flame of rivalry. 

Glynda held the microphone sparingly, her fingers just stroking the lining of the stand as she stood resolute in her grape coloured sparkling dress, she looked gorgeous and Emerald was almost unable to contain her watering mouth from the dance floor. Still, the blonde found solace in her bloodstone eyes and focused on them for the time, hoping herself that Ruby was not doing what she thought she was. What a disaster could come from it. 

“Where have all the good men gone and where are all the Gods? Where’s the streetwise Hercules to fight the rising odds?” Glynda sang deeply and forcefully, yet also gracefully into the microphone, lulling the audience into a soft-spoken slumber with her tones. Daring to bring Emerald to tears she looked directly into her blood red eyes, all the while thinking of what horrific truth Ruby had found through the door. 

In actual fact, she knew, it was too coincidental, and Glynda looked to Yang, spotting the same styled hair and the facial structure, the secretive brooding eyes of a Branwen. 

The elder blonde snapped back to Emerald, nearly missing her next chord. “Isn’t there a white knight, upon a fiery steed? Late at night… I toss and I turn and I dream of what I need….

“I need a hero!” Glynda roared, kicking the ballad into full swing as the band followed her lead and her queue, all while Ruby Rose flicked the light switch on in the corridor and saw Raven’s shadow flash around the corner as fast as the elderly woman could travel. Ruby could hear Glynda singing, hearing the chords and the rush of the keyboard and drums racing with her. 

Little Ruby snapped with Crescent Rose in hand. “Raven! Stop!” She called out to the fleeing woman and blasted forward around the corner with a flare of her semblance. The chase was on and Ruby was in no way about to let her half-sister’s birth mother get away. What was she even doing here? She was meant to be dead, but obviously, Klein must have been mistaken… Unless Jacques Schnee wanted them all to think she was dead? 

Or maybe Raven did… Then why reveal herself here? Why now? After all the years why come back to watch Yang here and now? Something did not sit right in Ruby’s stomach as she thundered down the corridor after the fleeing woman. 

If there was any way Raven had the same ability as Uncle Qrow, if there was a way she could transform into a raven, she was for some reason not doing it. She was just running, and yet still she was running faster than Ruby at her quickest. Alarm bells rang again. Taiyang had always told little Ruby she got her speed from Summer. It was a little coincidental that she was not around to prove it, while Raven was doing just that right now. 

Nevertheless, Ruby had to catch her, had to keep on her heels and keep her inside and get her into a room to pounce on her. Which was going to be tricky without a speed advantage and without any backup at all. She could not risk calling for help. There were limited options. 

“Can’t fire Crescent Rose in here, the whole ballroom will hear it. There’s no one to call for help… Unless!” She told herself, quickly reaching into the inside small pocket of her frilly dress to clutch for her scroll. There was perhaps one person who could help with complete confidentiality. 

“I need a hero! I’m holding out for a hero until the end of the night!” Glynda belted out against the rush and the marathon that was the drums, the guitar and the keyboard behind her. “She’s gotta be strong, and she’s gotta be fast, and she’s gotta be fresh from the fight!”

The crowd stomped their feet and swayed and twirled and all around went a little crazy as best they could to the elder blonde’s power ballad, Weiss and Pyrrha most of all. The redhead’s concern of Ruby was soon offset by the sheer enjoyment of dancing with Weiss and letting the whole world empty from her stressing young mind. She simply focused on Weiss for the time and followed her glacier blue eyes as they wobbled and spun and guided the taller amazon around the dance floor to the beat of Glynda’s singing. Yang and Blake were the same, rushing their feet in a static sprint as they grinned to one another, then coming back with arms raised and singing along as the rush swept them up. 

No one was at all worried as to where Ruby had headed off to, not one, they were too mesmerised, but Glynda up on the stage, looking at Emerald the entire time to ensure that she didn’t give into her stomach and projectile vomit into the crowd, she was the only one worried. She had the biggest idea as to where little Ruby was; no doubt currently chasing Raven Branwen, or Onyx Murkrow all around Beacon trying to pin her down. She never would, Raven was too fast, another little white lie Taiyang had fed his daughter all this time. 

Soon she’d realise if Raven was back and Winter was pregnant, too many questions would be asked and Ruby would run headlong into them in search of the truth. 

The truth that Raven was equal parts a parent to Ruby than Summer or Taiyang. That Ruby was a baby born of aura, as was Yang, and as would Winter’s baby and no doubt Alicia Fall would be. 

Ruby rounded another bend and could swear that the music in her head had shifted from the old power ballad Glynda was singing at the top of her lungs to something far more stripped down and muted. A piano concerto type with a very rushing left hand and a theme that certainly shook her very spine as she rounded and followed Raven to the classrooms, the smaller ones, and the musical rooms where the piano Weiss always played. It was purely haunting, looking inside to see nothing. It was as if the song was reverberating through the very conclaves of her mind. And it even hurt. 

She even saw a little flicker in Raven, as if she was trembling while she ran, and then there came a gust of the wind from the side, and Ruby realised she was no longer alone in this chase against her half-sister’s mother. “Matte!” Ruby yelled, thinking her new backup was the very person she yelled. But to the little girl’s dismay, it was no Matte, but a less tanned girl with hazelnut hair in a lovely bun carrying a long and withered staff.

“Who the hell is Matte?” Amber called to Ruby as they both charged as fast as they could after Raven, who had reached out with a hand into a portal and pulled forth her Grimm styled mask of disguise. The one her clan had fashioned for her when she was a mere teen. Qrow had one too, but he had disgraced the clan long ago and left his mask deep in the earth in Vacuo for it to be claimed by the sands. There was another who donned a mask of the same stylings, from the clan, one of Raven’s apprentices when she was a member of the organisation. A young faunus boy, but he was long since dead. 

Ruby stabbed Amber with a look of high disapproval and charged on faster as they rushed through the corridors passed the dormitory complex and down to where the Mess Hall was, wide and spacious. Raven entered first and ran past all the tables and chairs with the song of the piano running away in her mind too, but she had been hearing it for a long long time. In fact, so long she was convinced she had rid herself of it, but that was another shocking revelation for her. 

“Raven! Stop!” Ruby cried as loud as she could, and shockingly, the woman in the red kimono styled garb and Nevermore looking mask of Grimm wood stood tall and stopped just before the exit. She stopped, and glared directly at Amber and Ruby both, recognising both of them instantly for who they were - Her wife’s and her own second daughter, sister to Yang Xiao Long, and Amber, the once Fall Maiden with a different aura around her, an aura that Raven could smell for certain was Cinder Fall’s. Just how much had the world changed in seventeen years? How much had Raven missed?

Just how much of this world, had Raven helped shape?

The song would not stop, and it was getting louder, if only in Raven’s own mind, and she could not stand the familiar ringing, the notes she knew all too well. She could tell the girls were hearing it too; Amber could hear it as clear as glass, and it was louder in her mind than in Ruby’s but quieter than the elder swordswoman across the room. It was something they all shared in common, only not quite just yet. 

“Raven? Why are you here?!” Ruby yelled across space, ever so gently walking towards the masked mother of Yang Xiao Long. Ruby felt a burning across her arms, across her brow, anger, pure and unadulterated. “How did you survive Sturm’s Mansion? Why did you leave Yang when she was a baby? Answer me!” Ruby barked, yet all Raven could do was hold her temples over the pain and the strain of the impending music. Something was coming and it was coming fast and hard for all three of them.

Any minute Raven would feel it, the urge to attack and do anything the music would tell her to, so long as the maiden casting the spell on her said the right words, the triggers, the very same triggers that had caused Cinder Fall to almost losing her mind. The words that they had both heard for so long they were almost ripped of all self-conscious thought and filled with nothing but the ideas and the wishes of the very woman spinning the web they were caught in. 

She was there, all around them, her visage cast long and drawn out over the shadow of the dining hall, she was there. Raven wanted to run, to leave, and began conjuring all of her energy to snap a portal behind her, then another at the hotel room she, Tai and Qrow had rented for the duration of the Tournament. Which had definitely grown in danger as of right now. 

But Raven would not be able to tell any of her associates. Not Tai, nor Qrow, Ozpin, Penelope, or Glynda. The questions that would ensue would destroy Raven, as well as everything her estranged family chose to believe. 

And worst of all, the secret that Raven Branwen held above all others would give Yang more than a good enough reason to kill her own mother. 

She struggled to speak over the strain on her mind, but as she saw what the chords were doing to Amber, with the increased emotion of the day’s events acting as a catalyst and a way in for the control, Raven had to tell Ruby, to warn her. “Ruby…” The masked woman spoke in her deep and siren-like voice as the music pulsed in her mind. Ruby stopped and listened with all attention. 

“Look out!” Raven yelled, snapping the portal behind her and falling deep into it hard landing back on the floor of the hotel room and waking Taiyang and Qrow from their slumber. 

As the taller woman slipped away through the portal Ruby looked around the faint lull of the piano in the back of her mind now fading from all hearing, however with the way Amber looked the same could not be said for the half-maiden. She was hearing it more than ever now, first implanted in her when she ventured into Cinder’s mind to save her from herself and now catalysed by the anger and the frustration that morning, only to be exacerbated by the growing rivalry between her and Ruby. Amber was slipping, deeper and deeper into a waking sleep from which Salem, Winter Maiden and Witch of the Grimm would be able to control her as she used to Cinder. She was struggling beyond belief, but it was all futile as Ruby looked to her eyes and saw the creeping redness which instantly told her Amber was not there. 

All it would take now would be the words, that only Amber would hear over the tumultuous music in her mind, rattling her very core with the subtle creepiness and the old difficulty. It was impeccable and god founded, horrible, truly terrible beyond comprehension to anyone but the listener. Amber could not stand it and then knew just what hell Cinder was living when she assaulted Amber in the country years ago. The half-maiden could not say that in those moments as she went under she would not have done the same if not worse with her skill. 

“A-Amber?” Ruby asked, her vocals trembling as she saw the strain in the veins of Amber’s neck, tense with struggle. She never answered she couldn’t.

“Amber,” spoke the Witch in the young woman’s mind. “Kindly, would you dispose of Miss Rose and find me Ms Branwen?” Salem asked, in the most sinister tone she could, and as she snapped her fingers, Amber sprang into action, leaping over the gap between her and Ruby with her staff ready to plunge right through her new opponent. 

Ruby gasped, quickly having to move the hulk of the head of Crescent Rose upwards to block the sharp end of Amber’s staff coming for her throat. She still could not fire a single round off from the sniper rifle, it would be far too loud. Instead, she kicked off of the floor with some strength, sending herself into the air and Amber flipping around to land on her feet. If she wanted to fight now, Ruby had no choice. 

“All right Amber, bring it on!” Ruby shouted, snapping into her semblance as the music from her mind dissipated and all she could hear was the faint murmur of chords coming from the main hall. Glynda had finished and the main program of Flynt and his band had resumed. “Na Na Na, baby give it up, give it, baby give it up!” She could hear in Coal’s voice but there was no time for chuckling, she had to defeat Amber, not kill, never kill but knock her out. Ruby couldn’t even tell if Amber was in her right mind or not. She had only just met her. 

And this was a horrible first day of introductions. Still Ruby had to fight, she launched herself in a flurry of rose petals at the woman, hacking and slashing, spinning Crescent Rose around like something possessed to overwhelm Amber with strikes. But the half-maiden was leagues above such a simple strategy of brute force. And Ruby was not that strong compared to the people Amber was used to fighting. She had handled Grimm of colossal size and strength, and Huntsmen and Huntresses of equal measure so strong Ruby would run in fear. Ruby had only really been victorious against Roman Torchwick. 

Amber Fall was in a totally different realm of fighting compared to her, and the feeble attacks from Crescent Rose bounced off of Amber’s staff as the woman spun it around and twirled her body around like an exorcist. She was amazing and Ruby was already sweating with the fear of an impending loss. 

Both girls yelled as the strain of their battle-tested them, Ruby louder by far than Amber. She could not lose, not at all, she had no idea what Amber would do with her, even if Amber was there through the red eyes. It was terrifying. 

“Amber stop! This is serious!” Ruby called through the clashes of the metal blades of her scythe against the material of Amber’s staff. There was no way that thing was made of wood, not a chance it was too indestructible. 

“Kindly, would you simply give up Ruby?” Amber spoke in a voice that was not alike the one she had been using all day. It was much deeper and less innocent, hell it was less human and mortal. She was speaking with an ethereal presence, a filter that was almost angelic. Fallen angelic. It left a foul taste in Ruby’s mouth as she broke in one of the tables and used it to kick herself back and away from Amber’s hitbox. 

The little scythe wielder landed a few feet towards the exit of the hall and thought about running for her life. Could she even get away? Would Amber give chase again or simply return to the main hall and start a massive brawl there? She could have been putting her fellow girls in danger by running. And Matte should have been close, they could have heard the fighting and ran for the mess hall. 

No, Ruby kept fighting. She launched herself again at Amber and Amber met her halfway across the room, clashing stage with scythe as the funk and the brass of the music from the main hall got a little louder. It was so off-putting, fighting to such a beat that was so stupidly away from her attitude. She wished for Matte or anyone to find her now and quickly she spun Crescent Rose up and around again, flipping the sharp bottom end of the spine downward, slashing across Amber’s breasts and creating a small gash across the right mound, cutting through the shirt of her suit. If Amber was not in her right mind, she was going to face a nasty surprise on her breast when she was. 

“Please, Amber just stop! Why are you attacking me now?!” Ruby asked, more confused the more they attacked each other. She was in the same frame of mind as Glynda was earlier that day, in a haze of complete confusion over what in the name of the gods was happening around her. What was becoming of the world? How much was happening that Ruby did not know about and what relevance did it have to her? 

Why was Raven here? Who was Amber? And what did Ruby have to do with anything that was going on?

Amber simply snarled at the girl’s last plea and leaped for her again, to stab her right through the chest with her staff and have it over with, but there was something at the back entrance to the hall that she missed; Matte Skye with their flintlock drawn and ready to shoot Amber should she get too close. But Matte missed their chance, and before they could blast Amber with a stunning round, another dust cartridge hit Amber in the middle of her now scarred chest. 

A round from outside the hall, from a mysterious sniper. Ruby looked around and out of the upper window to see her on the outstretched branch of a withered tree just starting to regrow from the spring air. A late bloomer. She looked passed the darkness to see the sniper. A girl with a beanie covering her left eye - May Zedong of Team ABRN in a smart suit and bowtie. She must have been walking to hear the fighting and chase. 

Matte quickly made their way to Ruby, regaining her breath and panting from the severe attack. Ruby could have sworn something was dislocated but looking her over, Matte Skye found nothing except some intense bruising around her back and shoulders, probably more at her abdomen, but Matte could not check. At that time, May joined them from the tree, looking over the unconscious Amber. 

“Not my best shot but better than letting her stab ya, eh Rubes?” May asked in a joking way. She was the least bit invested in this entire ruckus and had less of a clue of what was going on than even Matte. At least Ruby had called the ensign to tell them what she needed and what she was doing. “Rubes?” May asked again as she turned to see Ruby in tears cuddling with Matte, so exhausted and so shaken by what had happened. And this was the easy part. 

The hardest part would come tomorrow after she had returned to the townhouse and after they had all fallen asleep and woken back up. Where Ruby would have to lie to all of them about what had happened, but above all, lie to Yang. About seeing Raven in the flesh. 

Meanwhile…

Across the school, back in one of the music rooms the dreaded and controlling piano of Salem’s siren mantra was still playing, and not internally anymore, it was being played, by a man in a whisky trench coat with a horrid moustache. 

He was playing it, seductively, quietly, under the thumping music of the main hall and the dance that was ensuing. He was being discreet, and secretive, under the radar as he had been for years. Dr Watts, silently infiltrating every single aspect of society he could to advance himself or his Mistress Salem, or both. It never mattered which, Watts was a man of conviction and resource, and perhaps one of the most effective tools in the woman’s arsenal of destructive power. And here he was, alone and undetected, playing the song he had composed for her use as her mind control lullaby. 

Simply, enjoying the moment and the evening in a different way to everyone else.

Where they lived for the company and the loud music, the feeling of celebration and culmination of so many cultures and peoples from around Remnant, Watts was enjoying the solitude and the aloneness, being himself and in the dark. Cast out, and driven to soliloquy, he lived for these precious moments with a piano. The man was a protege on the keys, he had learnt all his life and practised, and all to compose the piece he was so intimately running away with now. There was not much on his mind, only ever the future, and his role and position in the infinite amount of futures that could take shape. 

His ambition was always to be somewhere at the top of the pile of success in any number of them. But that did not mean he had faith in one over the other. 

Nature, and history and society, contrary to what everyone else believed and thought, was always shaped by the will of the world itself. Watts swore by that. Everything was set, somewhere and somehow by Remnant itself, and it had been for thousands in not millions of years. And as Watts’s fingers rested on the final chord of his mantra, he sighed and spoke to himself. “All of this has happened before…”

“And all of this will happen again, my darling Watts,” Salem spoke as she finally took form from out of the shadows just as she did back in Sturm’s office before the end of the holidays. She was as elegant as she always was, her hips wide and curving so sweetly to make her hourglass shape. If she was not completely ghastly from the lines all over her face and the rest of her grey skinned self, some might even call her beautiful. And perhaps to Watts she was beautiful, in another way to physically. 

Salem exhumed power, raw and yet refined, crystallised by the Grimm and displayed perfectly like a shine with her Maiden prowess. She was the Winter Maiden, the original and the only one in history. Whether that was going to change would ultimately be down to her skill. But for now, she remained flawless before Watts.

The tanned and brown-haired man curled his lips and played their soft melody a little quietly as she slowly floated around the room. The bottom of her long gown was swept up as shadows and ink on the water again like their meeting miles away before the secret invasion. 

“Do you remember when you had me compose this for you, My Lady?” Watts asked, his conscious mind bristling with pride and with arrogance, enough to think himself special and above all others. He was aware just how much she was using Schnee, all for the Vytal Strategy. “Back at Atlas, before I left the family estate, you came to me when I was merely a boy, playing my mother’s piano in the drawing room while Maria was upstairs with my parents.”

“I could tell the ambition and the deception were already old friends to you my dear, and that you would crush anyone to be at the top of the mound when all the dust had settled,” Salem continued, reminiscing beautifully with him as he continued to run his fingers all over the keys of the piano. Their song, Salem’s song, her siren’s call to however many maidens around the world, it was so beautiful and yet displayed all the megalomania that inhabited Watts’s mind. A boy, and he composed such a horrific melody that would bring about such pain. 

“I knew you would be the perfect man to help me destroy Ozpin and Vale, and then the world my dear,” Salem lulled, walking behind Watts and stroking his cheek.

“Do we yet know where the dear Headmaster is?” Watts asked, struggling to detach himself from her enthralling advances and focus on the strategy they were following like gospel. It was such a long time planning it, and the pieces were all falling into place. 

There was Hazel, in the perfect position to begin causing trouble, Sturm, controlling the entire tournament and forcing players to their locations. Raven and her pointless backup doing exactly what Salem wanted, and now Miss Ruby Rose and Amber Fall walking headlong into a series of traps that would spring the end for Pyrrha and for Jaune and for Cinder. Salem was playing her game effortlessly, the players were doing it for her. 

“Oh, I am sure he’s somewhere around my dear. Ozpin wishes to conceal himself until the end, where we’ll unleash the final trap and destroy him and the entire kingdom,” Salem informed the man in the jacket. 

“And how did the test of Miss Rose go?”

“Failure, but it matters not,” Salem snapped politely, quickly regaining her composure. “Miss Amber can me manipulated perfectly, as soon as Raven stumbles onto the truth behind Jacques, she’ll run into Ruby again and myself, where the Miss Rose’s world will come crashing down and she’ll be child’s play to bend to my will,” she spoke proudly, as Watts finished his reiteration of his masterpiece and set the drawer of the piano down, perfectly. It was done, the little status report and the party were still going, Watts had to resume his role and mingle.

He fixed his collar, and then the outer lip of his jacket, making himself look more than presentable. “Then all is as it should be. We move forward on your word My Lady, with tomorrow’s matches looking to further the divide in the ladies.”

“Excellent Watts, you serve me perfectly.”

“Of course, I live to serve.”

At the same time… 

“Do you really think it was her? Your mother I mean,” Blake asked a little softly and nervously as she and Yang held hands and cuddled a little by the punch bowl, the blonde nibbling on some of the snacks. They had left the chaos of the dance floor right as it all got a little slower, and the hour rounded the next side of midnight. They were both more than a little tired, and it showed in how slouched they were, with the harsh shadows under their dazzling eyes. And the question had been on Blake’s mind since they had walked Weiss home earlier that day, all throughout getting ready for the dance. She had wanted to ask Yang but never sure if she should, until now. 

Yang looked at her faunus bondmate solely in her feline eyes, which were glowing a little more beautifully in the low light away from the floor ones. They were so natural, so yellow, and glowed gorgeous like that, as she leant against the table. Blake almost looked tomboyish, in the way she leant, her hips curving, and her arms squared, but her aura dwindling, her area small and reserved. It was like how she was months ago, before reading the paper article Melanie had handed her in Mistral. But it was so adorable, and Yang had no control over her arms as they snaked around her girlfriend’s hips. 

Lilac eyes were fixated on the feline orbs. “I think, that it could well have been her, but it doesn’t matter if it was or wasn’t,” Yang told Blake, even smiling as she did. 

“But… She’s your mom isn’t she?” Blake asked, a little flicker of credulousness in her trembling and tired voice as she comprehended what Yang had replied. Blake could hardly understand it, how shut and cut off from Raven Yang actually was. It had been the same when Klein had told them she was dead. Yang didn’t care then, and it looked that she cared even less now. And Blake couldn’t understand why. 

And that was because even though Blake hadn’t seen her in years, she still had her mother, alive and well living in Menagerie. 

“My mom was Summer Rose, and she died a few years ago, and nothing is ever gonna change that Blakey,” Yang told the faunus, a little more ironclad in response. “Raven left when I was too young to remember her, and that’s fine, it’s her problem. But I had a mom, and she died, and Raven will never be her, so I don’t care if she’s alive or dead, back or not. Summer won’t ever be more than a gravestone now.”

Blake said nothing in response, and instead just hugged Yang back for a while, holding her so close as they looked out to the floor, spotting the rest of their girlfriends dancing and swaying slowly as Flynt and his band played them out into a lullaby. There was Pyrrha in Weiss’s shorter arms, the heiress coming down from her little spout of drunkenness. The twins were for once separate now, one with Emerald and another with Coco, as Velvet danced lovingly with Nora and Glynda with silent little Neo, who by the look of her hair, had had the time of her life dancing at a school dance. They all looked so beautiful and so happy, yet so tired like Blake and Yang were secretly. 

The faunus turned back to the dragon, leaning to kiss her cheek sweetly. Yang met her gaze once more and kissed her back on her lips, softly and slowly, feeling the fatigue in Blake. 

“Shall we go home kitty?” Yang asked, and the tired faunus nodded in sleepy rapport. “Come on then baby, they’ll follow us, and hopefully Ruby’s already home.”

Ruby was already home, with Matte and May outside with her, trying to calm her down. It was still rattling Ruby how it all had happened, and how they had dealt with Amber, by shoving her in a cab and telling the driver to take her home, amazed at the fact that May knew the address from Ren. Such an odd world it had become Ruby still felt sick. 

“It’s going to be okay Ruby, just go to bed and we can deal with this soon I promise,” Matte told her, trying to keep her calm and keep her from telling the girls anything about what she had seen and felt and fought. Matte had a line of communication they would follow with this and would help Ruby by uncovering the truth. “Give me a few days and this will be fine I promise hon,” Matte finished by giving the shaken team leader a swift kiss on her lips before dashing back in the second cab, leaving May and Ruby at the door. 

The sniper gave the fellow sniper a swift hand rub, warming the little woman. “It’ll be fine, trust me Ruby, and if you need any help or anything, give me a call, the apartment is always open to one more,” May graced, handing Ruby a small scrap of paper with her number on it. 

“Thanks, May, for helping and saving my life, thank you so much.”

“Don’t worry chick, just don’t tell anyone about Amber and make sure you stay safe during the tournament. And don’t forget, I’ll be seeing you soon in the rounds, Team BRNZ is raring to take on the first winners,” May smiled, giving her companion a small cuddle. Ruby chuckled with her and felt instantly warmer. But before too long May was gone, walking down the streets into the centre of the city to her own apartment. 

And now came the hard part. Time for Ruby to lie, to protect her girlfriends.

To Be Continued…

**Author's Note:**

> Relationships of 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow'
> 
> Over the Rainbow - Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, Yang Xiao Long, Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie, Penny Polendina, Ciel Soleil, Neon Katt, Emerald Sustrai, Neopolitan, Melanie Malachite, Militia Malachite, Coco Adel, Velvet Scarlatina, Winter Schnee, Glynda Goodwitch
> 
> Daylight Robbery - Jaune Arc, Cinder Fall, Mercury Black, Roman Torchwick (Sexual and Emotional however Mercury is dating Jaune exclusively while Jaune dates all of them)


End file.
